Hello, Teri!
Okay, I see, you'll not be all "alone" regarding your Germany-Tour, that's pretty good.
If you'll stay or be in Osnabrück, it's not far to all the villages you want or have to visit. You have to go to Löningen, I guess,located at the "Emsland". May be, this is about 80km from Osnabrück. - You should come in summer, because the "Emsland" is very nice..... Don't forget to see all those nice old locations at Osnabrück; your cousins will show you, I'm sure.
My ancestors came to St.Louis in 1840 (from Oesede); Mathias Mentrup was a paper-maker in Germany (as his father and grandfather was) and became a "famous grocer" I found out. I found the today "living Mentrup-Family" at Kansas City; even they always say they are more than interested to hear everything about their German-Roots and want to stay in touch with us, they don't want and they don't, I'm sure. Who cares?
First of all my "studies" regarding the imigration og Mathias, I could'nt understand who to emigrate to the USA as a 27-years old man, all alone, without any "English" at all. In the meantime I learned, St.Louis must have been something like "Litte Germany" and therefore "English" was not the problem. Looks like many Germans lived at St.Louis, propbably all located at "Ward 2".
Anyway, Mathias did a very good "job"; he married a girl from Alfhausen ("Emsland") and started a very big and succesful family.
Teri, enjoy your trip "back to the roots"; I wish you all the best, have a nice "German-Time"!!!
Jutta
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