How Far We Have Come!
In September of last year I wrote about a box of letters which I found. These I had written beginning in 1978 to relatives when I first began seriously researching and recording our family...
Tagged: California
Letters From Nana, Part 3
The first part and second part in this series examined letters and postcards that Nana, Irene (Faus) Hagenbuch (b. 1920, d. 2011), sent to me between 1999 and 2001. This article—the final in the...
Carrying on Traditions
In the movie Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye is faced with changing times and sings about tradition—the importance of the Papa being the head of the household. His wife, Golde, sings of the Mama...
A Trip Across America: History Around Every Corner
America is a land filled with history. From vast wilderness areas to the most modern cities, some connection to the past can be found – if one cares to look. The first part in...
A Trip Across America: Many Lands, Many Peoples
The United States is a country of varied landscapes populated by many different peoples. The first article in this series explored how migration has been an important part of the American experience, including that...
A Trip Across America: Family Migrations
The story of the Hagenbuch family in America is one about migrations. From Andreas Hagenbuch leaving Europe for Pennsylvania in the 1700s to Enoch Hagenbuch traveling west in the 1800s, our family has been...
Making Sauerkraut: A Pennsylvania Deitsch Tradition
It was hardly a surprise when, this past summer, my parents told me that they were going to start making their own sauerkraut. My family does, after all, have a reputation for tackling some...
Stories My Father Told Me
As stated in previous articles, family history is more than names and dates. Most interesting can be the family stories that have been passed on from one generation to another. Oral traditions are often...
