It is hard to describe our Celebrations and the friendships that have evolved from these weekends. This year we decided to expand the weekend to include a Thursday night dinner and we had over 24 people attend. And what happened....we still heard some grumbling about the weekend going by too quickly.
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This year we added attendees from Saskatchewan and Illinois to the previous list of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado, California, Arizona, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
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We held some of the events at the Red Lion Hotel in Salem and it was great because they had a restaurant in the building. I suspect we drove the servers a little crazy with everyone moving around from table to table at breakfast.
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The biggest change was to add a Friday afternoon session on folklore and customs which was very well received. David Kemle had suggested we include time for introductions and "WOW!" is perhaps the best way to describe them. What a great bunch of people!
- Clara Fischer graciously volunteered to spend a few minutes talking Schwobish. She had a dialog going between two ladies talking on the phone about anything and everything. It reminded me of listening to my mother talking to my aunts. Thank you Clara!!
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Lucille Herold Gartly led an interesting discussion on Schwobish cooking.
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George Johnson talked about being the husband of a Schwobish genealogy researcher (Eileen) and was hilarious. I think everyone needs to encourage George and Eileen to attend in 2006 so we can make George the master of ceremonies for the Friday night dinner.
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Marlene Raschko Krebs told the story about how her father tried to talk some of the original Banat pioneers in the Lefor, ND area to sign up for phone service and wasn't having much success. So one Sunday in church he made an announcement that he had only 30 German speaking phones for left for sale. At the end of the mass all the phones were sold. "German speaking phones"...talk about marketing in the early 1900's!
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Saturday morning we had our sessions at the Queen of Angels Monastery again and we were so fortunate to have three excellent presentations.
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Dave Dreyer talked about his latest work on Donauschwaben military records. Those who subscribe to the Banat-L mailing list know that Dave is the person who keeps it going. His "Ship Extraction Database" has been used by so many of us researching our ancestors immigration to the United States. An amazing contribution!
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Anne Leptich gave a great talk about resources such as those available at Sindelfingen, Germany with an emphasis on Alsace information. Anne is an Accredited Genealogist and we were very fortunate to have Anne speak. Dick Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter has a quote about Anne speaking at another event "Anne Leptich, AG (R) will give the banquet address, "Cast a Bigger Shadow with Your Family Tree." Imagine, hearing Anne speak while enjoying a prime rib dinner in the Museum of Art. It should be a great conference."
- Carol Jackson, conducted a session on basic genealogy research and gave us some excellent suggestions for keeping records. Those of you who attended in 2004 year will remember the delicious goodies she brought to the session. You might want to ask for the recipe for her latest grand prize dessert!
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David Kemle by popular demand showed the video of his Mramorak trip which was a huge hit in the second Celebration.
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We will also had a number of mini sessions of around 10. For example, Glenn Schwartz, President of the Zichydorf Village Association gave a presentation on the Zichydorf Village Association and current research activities.
The Celebrations would not have been nearly successful without the help of Ray and Diane Borschowa who live in Mt. Angel. They selected the wonderful restaurant, made all the arrangements with the monastery for holding the workshops including the last minute transition to a much larger conference room and much more.
John "Greenie" and Nancy Busch from Illinois won the honors of coming from the furthest distance. They were followed by George and Eileen Lund-Johnson from St. Paul, and Glenn and Celeste Schwartz from Saskatchewan.
Steve