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I have written this novel after having spent hundreds of hours of research (and quite a few dollars) seeking after the ancestors of my husband, Alfred Walter Reschke. Several years ago, in 1976, Alfred’s father, Rudolf, flew from Chicago to our home in Fremont, California, to visit us. While he was with us, I asked him about his parents and grandparents. He told me a little about himself and when and where he and his parents were born. He gave me his birth date and that of his wife Blandina Wilhelmina Deckert. He said his father was born in a covered wagon on his way to Kiev, but that they had returned to Germany about 1912. He told me he and his father had been drafted into the military service during World War I and that he had been a prisoner in a British concentration camp for two years. He also gave me the names of his aunts and uncles and some of his cousins. I still have the notes that I wrote as he spoke.
I did not attempt to collect any further information about the Reschke ancestral tree until several years later when I found it was very difficult to do research in Germany. Partially, because I could not speak German and partially because my husband was deceased and I no longer had contact with his family in Chicago.
One day in December of 2002 I decided to begin researching the Reschke line again. I was quite proficient on the computer and with surfing the Internet. I had already done a great deal of research for my father’s ancestors so I knew about websites and “where to go” for information. I started with www.ellisislandrecords.com and found Rudolf Reschke had entered the United States with his sister Helene, departing from Hamburg, Germany, arriving September 5, 1922. Both resided in Karft, Germany, prior to departure. They went to live with Uncle Adolf Schulz. This gave me something to start with so I put a message on Ancestry.com’s message board that I was seeking information about an Adolf Schulz who lived in Chicago about 1922. In February of 2004 (2 years later!), I received an email from a young man in Germany responding to my message. He, too, was looking for information about an Adolf Schulz who lived in Chicago about 1922. This was the beginning of almost daily emails between Marcus and me. Marcus also gave me the name of a person (Rose) in Canada whose ancestry came from the very area where Adolf Reschke was born and raised. So between Marcus and Rose, I have been able to put together a family tree starting with my husband, Alfred Walter Reschke and going back seven generations to Andreas and Marianne Reschke born about 1760, probably in Germany. This added over one hundred names to the Reschke family tree.
I am also indebted to Herb Reschke who supplied me with photographs and information about family members and a copy of Adolf Reschke’s autobiography.
To make the research of the Reschkes more interesting, I, being a writer, have written a short novel beginning with Andreas and Marianne Reschke. I have tried to image what it was like back in 1760 (researching, of course, the conditions at the time in Germany and Poland). I continued the story up to the point of the autobiography of Adolf Reschke “Gnade.”
I hope you enjoy the imagined story of your family.
Elaine Matson Reschke |
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My husband, Alfred Walter Reschke, and me
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