Month: December 2014

Welcome to Our Family Tree Project

/ Peter Klopp / 1 Comment

Invitation to Participate

The two family trees of the Klopp-Kegler clan are complete. On the Panknin-Reifferscheid side there are still a few important branches missing. We are working hard to fill the gaps. Thank you to you all far and wide for your  enthusiastic assistance in the creation of these trees!

The trees are nice to look at and give us a sense of identity within the bewildering complexity of family relations. But just as the trees, before spring returns after a long winter, the family trees look bare and lifeless.

bare tree

To add meaning and beauty to the family trees we need to go beyond the mere names attached to the branches. We all have fond memories that are worth reporting and recording on this site. So if we contribute just one interesting story, one exciting episode, or a colorful description of a time and circumstance in someone’s life perhaps supported by a photo, drawing or painting, then certainly the trees would begin to blossom and reveal the rich tapestry of life. Seeing us as an integral part of a network of individual branches will make us aware of our own individual place within the multifaceted context of our families.

The blog “Our Family Tree Project” will serve as the vehicle allowing us to share, collect, organize and publish our thoughts and memories on our family members including ourselves. I suggest that you email me your contributions. I will then post them in the order they arrive. If they are in German, I will first translate them. It would be great, if someone in Germany could create and use a parallel blog site for our German relatives who do not have a good knowledge of the English language.

On my next post I will explain in greater detail how I envision the Family Tree Project to work. In the meantime take some time to reflect.Then leave a comment or send me an email on how to decorate our family trees.

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2015

 

The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Story

/ Peter Klopp / 1 Comment

Preface

 

Story Cover

Last February I completed Book I of the Peter and Gertrud Klopp Story. I wanted to have the book published so that my immediate family members would have a lasting record. When I finally found a publisher willing to produce ten copies at an affordable price, I was pressed for time, as  my brother Karl’s 85th birthday was rapidly approaching. Consequently quite a few errors remained uncorrected in the final editing process. With the launching of this blog it seems fitting to republish a condensed version of the book, which will hopefully be error-free. I will try to post one chapter at a time in two weeks’ intervals, which I will also copy onto a separate page within THE P. and G. KLOPP STORY menu item above. That way the chapters are presented in chronological order.

Presently I am writing Book II, the story of Biene’s side of the family, starting like Book I with the grandparents and ending with that momentous event in 1962, when Biene and I  met for the very first time at the municipal campground of Lake Baldeney near the city of Essen, Germany.