The Geneology Trip

Last fall, I received an email from a woman named Sherrie Stahl. She had some questions about our possible relationship to a Jacob Hardt. Jacob Hardt was Forry's grandfather -- and that was about all of the information we knew.


Boy, did Sherrie change that! She was able to tell us that Jacob was born in the German colony of Brunnental, Samara, Volga, Russia and that his father's name was Conrad! She was able to tell us the name of the ship, the SS Switzerland, on which he had traveled from Antwerp to Philadelphia. (We had tried to find information at the Mormon library in Salt Lake City, but just didn't have enough to go on.) Sherrie has done a great deal of genealogical work about the Brunnental Colony and was led to looking for the Hardts because of a picture she was given of Jacob and his family.


Today Forry and I and Daughter Dawn went to visit Sherrie at her home in Portland. We brought many of the pictures that we had which she scanned for her collection. (She has EIGHT file drawers of material!) It was a great visit and we learned a lot about Brunnental.



Grandson Micah and five little guests had his birthday party tonight in Salem. Dawn and Todd took them to the Pirate Party after school. Grand daughters Havela and Kyra went with us to the Thai Restaurant in Canby. From the noise level of the boys as they loaded the cars, I think Forry and I had the best deal!