WHAT IS THIS?

I am not quite sure what this is.  The above document was given to me by Susanne while I was visiting Munich.  At first, I thought it was some organization that my grandfather belonged to while he was living in Germany.  However, Peter Joseph Nebgen came to the US at age 20 and he definitely looks older than that in the photo.  So, my next guess (I always like to have several options) is that is some group he was the President of while living in Chicago. From what I can tell (with my limited knowledge of German) that it was a group that was either planning a trip to Europe or one that was encouraging people to visit Germany. ( I did figure out that there is a Secretary, Financial Secretary, Treasurer and 2 Board of Directors also listed on the photo.)  Obviously it was aimed at German speaking Americans since it is in German.  Perhaps my Great Grandfather belonged to some civic group, like Kiwanis or Rotary, and was encouraging travel to Europe.

So, here is what I do actually know -- I have found documentation of his travels to the US from Germany on three different dates.  He came to the US on 8 Dec 1888 (still trying to figure out if this was his initial visit) on the ship Waesland.  The trip was from Antwerp, Belgium to New York.  The second trip was in 1914 -- he arrived in New York from Rotterdam on 18 Aug 1914.  He traveled with his wife Theresa aboard the ship Nieuw Amsterdam.  The last trip that I found happened in 1929.  On 1 Sep 1929, he arrived in New York from Bremen.  He, along with his wife Theresa, sister-in-law Helen, and niece Rose Roemer were aboard the ship Muenchen.

So back to my research because the more I find out, the more questions that I have ...

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

I love this photo of my Grandpa Charlie (Sherlock) in Germany (I think!) in 1961.  This was a part of their month-long trip to Europe.  Whenever I see this photo, I think it looks like it is from one of his movies when actually  it was from his life.

On that trip, they took a cruise down the Rhine River and visited cities along the Rhine.  I am thinking that this is from one of those side trips. I have a photo of Grandma Theresa also with this officer, but of course, hers is  much more the typical pose of two people looking at the camera.

What is also typical of this photo of my Grandma and the German officer is that they are not posed in the middle of the photo.  Grandpa Charlie always took photos like this. He would say that he already knew what his family members looked like, he wanted to get the scenery as the focus point.

I do love how they were dressed up in all of the photos of this trip.  I guess that was custom in that time while now we are much more casual. Sometimes, I do yearn for those days ...

CRUISING DOWN THE RHINE RIVER

After my Grandparents (Charles Sherlock and Theresa Nebgen Sherlock) visited the Cologne Cathedral, they continued their river cruise down the Rhine.  According to Theresa's travel diary, they visited St. Goar [Sankt Goar -- a town on the left bank of the Middle Rhine], Bonn (the capital of Germany) and Heidelberg.  They stayed overnight in Heidelberg and visited the Heidelberg Castle (which has still been only partially re-built), attended Mass since that day was a holy day (Corpus Christi) in Germany and visited the University of Heidelberg.  During my research, I learned that not only is the University of Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany but was the 3rd university founded in the Holy Roman Empire.  Now that is impressive!

On their way to Switzerland, Charlie and Theresa visited Freiburg im Breisgau, a town in southwestern Germany. They then visited the Rhine Falls, which is the largest plain waterfall in Europe.  I believe the photo above has the falls behind Theresa.  From the Rhine Falls, Theresa and Charlie visited the city of Lucerne, Switzerland.  They saw one of the famous landmarks, the Chapel Bridge (a covered wooden footbridge that crosses the river) and Mt. Rigi (also known as Queen of the Mountains).

Theresa wrote in her diary "Switzerland is beautiful so far I don't know which country [Germany or Switzerland] I like the best."