Hi Eric,
I'm fine thanks but my family tree and results of years of research were
lost when lightning struck and blew up my computer. One consolation was
that most of my tree was on a website but when the owners upgraded their
programme I found somebody else's ancestry was tangled up with mine and I
wasn't able to undo the damage, so I took a rest from research.
In case anyone who knew I was looking for my family, and is interested - I
can tell them the following..
The history of William Henry FLEMME born 1878 in England to father Franz
Jacob Henning FLEMME/FLAMME born 1854 in Steinlah im Landkreis Wolfenbüttel
was paramount to me and I have been very happy to have found so many
documents.
Young Franz stepped onto English soil in July 1864 when he was 10yrs 2 days
old. He was a child musician in a travelling band and he was chaperoned by
his Uncle Conrad Ehlers brother of Sophie Christine Hennig Ehlers. In
England, Conrad married a Charlotte Bielstein of the German musical
Bielstein/Gunther families and to my amazement I discovered I actually went
to school with and knew a descendant of that Bielstein family back in the
1950s..
As most records that were kept in London were burnt I was lucky to discover
some 1914-1918 documents for three sons of Franz which showed they were in
the medical corps serving in France during those years and amazingly I
found a photograph of the brothers in their uniforms. After several years
I eventually discovered what happened to William Henry Flemme, the oldest
son of Franz. He was 40 years of age when England called upon him to join
the last push. I found a photo of him in the local newspaper and he looks
such a kind little man. He died 27th August 1918 aged 41 just before peace
was declared and I believe he was straffed from the air by "friendly" fire.
He is buried with some Australians in Grass Lane, Flers, War Graves.
Meanwhile from 1917 to 1942 when he died aged 86, his father Franz was
still a German national. I found a bundle of papers in the Police Records
which shows he was under constant surveillance during every year that the
UK was hostile to Germany and had to report daily to the local police
station. Even the Secret IIntelligence Services in London were approached
in the 1940s to give their estimation of whether this old man constituted a
danger to the Realm and should he be imprisoned. He was allowed to live in
his village home amongst family and friends.
How times change, today his English wife would be allowed to state she was
British but in those days as soon as she married an Alien she took his
nationality and thus was a German citizen too.
As yet, I have not researched the grandfather of Franz (a Lutheran) who was
Franz Flemme, miller of Lewe/Liebenberg (I don't know yet whether he was
Lutheran or Catholic). I know who he was married to and I have the
Catholic baptism records of some of his daughters but I have not done
further research.
Rena