Herrmann Family

We had originally planned to visit Alaska in 1970, but when Emmy mentioned that she had never met any of her uncles, aunts, cousins, or grandparents, and only one of her father’s sisters was still alive, we decided to visit Mettlach, Germany, and meet her family.

Emmy had lost all contact with relatives from either her natural mother’s, or her stepmother’s family. Once we visited Heiligenhafen and located the only address we had, but we could find none of her family.

Joseph Herrmann was born in Mettlach, Germany in 1873. His first wife Barbara, was the mother of Maria and Josefine. Joseph’s second wife, Katharina (nee Mungenast, born in Saarburg, not far from Mettlach), the sister of Emmy’s father Nikolaus, was the mother of twins Hugo and Reinhold, Gregor, Victor, Josef, Antonia, and Analisa. Reinhold was the only family member killed in WW II. Of course by now there are wives, husbands, children, grandchildren, and on and on.

Early in that first trip, Daughter Linda and her friend were not sure they wanted to spend any time visiting dull old relatives. But after they met Reinhold, Seppel (pet name, real name Joseph), and Klaus, grandsons of Joseph and Katharina, we had the feeling they would have spent their entire vacation in Mettlach. (One is spelled Josef, two are spelled Joseph.)

A dozen of Emmy’s German cousins have visited our home in California, some multiple times, and others promise, or is that threaten, to visit in the future. The words “Emmy’s Cousin” include a variety of real Cousins, “numbered and removed” Cousins, husbands and wives of Cousins, and some who may not really be Cousins. But then, who’s counting.

When we first visited Mettlach, we stayed 2 nights with Cousin Hugo. The next seven trips we spent 213 nights in the family home with Cousin Toni (Antonia). After Toni’s death, we spent 47 nights with Bärbel (that's her pet name, her real name Barbara, named after her grandmother—she’s the older Joseph’s granddaughter, the younger Josef’s daughter, and an even younger Joseph’s cousin), who by then owned the family home. In total we have spent 307 nights, during 9 trips at the homes of 10 different Cousins — 291 nights in someone’s bedroom, 16 nights in someone’s driveway, in the camper. Poor Cousins.