I spent the day with my first-cousin-twice-removed yesterday. Her name is Debbie. Well, actually it isn’t, but that’s the nickname she got in nursing school because no one could pronounce her maiden name. (It’s pronounced DAH-ber-coh) She came up from Florida to go to the LWML convention with my Aunt Bev and my mom. And since she was here, she went on a family history hunt. She is my Grandma Royuk’s cousin, and shares a lot of relatives with me, so I went along. My Aunt Bev and my mom and dad went to. It was a family history extravaganza!
We were in the car for a long time – longer than I’ve been in years. I think the total for the day was 7 or 8 hours! Whew! Our ultimate destination was two cemeteries near Wisner, Nebraska that were only a couple of miles apart. One had Debbie’s mom’s side of the family – Loewe, and the other had Debbie’s dad’s side – Daberkow. I have Daberkow blood in my veins: my Great Grandma Hoffman’s maiden name was Daberkow.
The first cemetery had beautiful headstones. There was a whole section dedicated to babies who died. I can’t believe how many there were. Thank God that doesn’t happen as much now as it did then!
Here is a child’s headstone. I love the hopeful message. Hold the cursor over the picture for a translation:
The second graveyard was the one with the people I was looking for: Great Grandma Hoffman’s parents. It’s Wilhelm and Helena Daberkow – my Great, Great, Grandparents. Isn’t that cool?
I was inspired by the faith that was evident in many of the inscriptions on the headstones, but my favorite of the day was this one. I’ll translate it after the picture. Don’t scroll all the way down if you’d like test your German skills.
Okay, so my German is a little rusty, but I think the literal translation is: “The end is good – everything is good, through God’s grace and Christ’s blood.” But on the internet, I found an alternate translation of the first phrase. With the alternate translation, it would say: “They lived happily ever after, through…” Yet another possibility is “All’s well that ends well, through…”
(Idioms are hard…)
I like that the second line of German almost looks exactly like, “It’s all good”. What a cool day of history you had! How interesting that your gret-great-grandfather didn’t have his first name on his headstone, but his profession and initials. Or am I wrong one that one? Is ‘Pastor’ a first name in some places?
Maybe “pastor” isn’t a first name, but at our school “Bishop” is…and I saw ours this morning at a funeral in a church where the chief pastor is known as Bishop, so one wonders, no?
Ich wusste nicht, dass Sie Deutsches sprachen! Wie man wundervoll eine Familie füllte Tag hat!
This is a great thing to have in your archives Brad! I have such limited information on my family. I need to work on that. The problem is, anyone I would ask for history….has already ‘ended good thru God’s grace & Christ’s blood’.
Peggy! Wer weisst das sie auch Deutsch sprechen kann! (All these years we could have been schwaffling behind others’ backs…)
The one that popped into my mind when I first read it was “All’s well that ends well” too.
Very cool that you have ancestors on this soil so many generations back. After grandparents, mine are all still in Europe (Germany, Austria und so weiter).
…but now I have to ask, having just revisited Frankenmuth last week, is the Loewe in your family related to the German pastor who brought missionaries to Michigan to convert the native Americans there to Christianity (German Lutheran, of course…)? [Thurman bought a book there about his struggle to bring the faith to those shores several centuries ago. Sehr interresant.] It is such a small Lutheran world out there – I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a connection.
I am married to a Daberkow in Nebraska.
I have lots of photos of where Daberkows in Nebraska are buried.
I take photos for findagrave.com
Check out findagrave(you’ll need to register, etc.)
I cannot find a meaning for Daberkow…except a town, which I do not think is our family origin…
Thanks! Michelle
Hi Michelle! It’s always nice to meet a relative.
I honestly don’t know too much about my family history. My Aunt Bev is the one who’s done a lot of research. She has whole file folders of information.
F.W.Daberkow was a Lutheran Pastor. He is my grandfather. He came from Pomerania with his parents in 1879. Settled in Nebraska. His wife was Helena (Hoelmer), from Mt.Olive, Illinols. Debbie (Muriel) is my sister. I have much more info on both Daberkow and Loewe families.
Richard Daberkow in Ohio
Hi Richard! If you’re Debbie’s brother, you are also my first cousin twice removed. Cool!
I like that you included Helena’s maiden name. I didn’t know that. My Aunt Bev is more the family historian than I am. I have a copy of the short version of her research, but she has lots of documentation. Do you know the answer to Michelle’s or Carol’s questions above?