Here I want to keep listing my family authorities among our branch of the Krieg-Treuthardt family. This early effort took about twenty years and more, up to about 1997. (Certainly it was not something I worked on continuously, but every so often one or two new facts came to me.)
Family history research has a life of its own. "It" is resistant to releasing information; it closely and jealously guards the secrets. What information it gives up at first seems insignificant, almost petty. Many times the effort of discovery seems futile, and one is embarrassed to admit how little progress he/she is making. How easy it is for one's family story to languish and fade away over time. One cannot even define what progress is.
Every family's history is unique, so one never knows what to expect. There is no way to anticipate from which direction the ideas may come. It has to be important to somebody, to rediscover it by being patient and waiting for the research to creep its way towards his/her direction.
Many times while my children were young, I had to "let it go." However, I never gave up curiosity or my goal, and I developed patience. Now I know, the work has to ripen. That takes a long time. It is important to begin a family history study when one is young, so that he/she has many years to develop patience.
A remarkable thing happened over time. Knowledge and information began to tumble in, quite suddenly in the scheme of things, after all those preliminary years of building on small events and ideas.
If you want to get my instruction list and scientific techniques and methods for researching our family history, here it is.
- Ask
- Seek
- Knock
Among my grandfather Gottlieb Krieg's family of twelve, he was the second-to-last child. My father was the second-to-last child of eight. I am the second-to-last child in a family of six, and Gottlieb's and Ida's penultimate grandchild out of eighteen. Birth-order-wise (second-to-last), I arrived at the end of the branch of my family. Knowing absolutely nothing about the subject of family history was apparently was so fascinating to me, that I was motivated to ask, seek and knock for more than three decades, going on close to four decades. This information came from others.
Sincerely, I would have made no progress whatsoever without the help of Roy and Norman. Both of those men were inspirational and helped me to have a vision. They got me oriented in the right direction. They brought first- or second-hand memories to share, giving me events on which to focus.
Roy and Jo provided their Georgetown home as an ideal central place for our "small" Krieg reunions every year, where the older people talked; the children played alongside each other and, two kids at a time, drove the go-kart endlessly in circles around the house -- and recklessly drank more soda water than they were permitted the rest of the year. Providing a venue for sharing news, meeting people, and remembering history, was a tremendous contribution to this study.
Norman every year would bring a family history "show-and-tell" object that he had found at home. He had a great memory and could talk for a long time. I brought a notebook, but there was more to learn and do than I could take notes of. One needs to listen and hear. I wanted to visit too, and watch the kids. I depended on Eddie to remember things that I had not heard.
The cousins were encouraged to recall things. The ones who used to live in and around Thrall described the family of those early days. Marjorie recalled things that were "atmospheric," Robert was always there to give information and approval, and Lucille added items or memories. Roy took us to places of interest in the Georgetown area, and he suggested other materials for me. Leon and Ida encouraged me with their support and memories. Reinhold told me his story about the Williamson County flood. Jean too had interviewed Aunt Anna before the latter's death. My brothers lived in Thrall only a short time and were too young to remember the oldest history, but Harvey observed a lot, for being so little. At one time (Roy told me) 26 members of the Krieg family lived in Thrall. Since Aunt Maude's death, there are none.
Before Uncle Arnold Krieg's death in 2000 (he was in the nursing home for a couple of years), we visited at their home several times, and I would always ask him questions. He might have a [short] answer that generated more questions, he might not, but we gained in those visits a better first-hand sense of the earliest times, and of his childhood memories at New Bern, Texas.
Of considerable value was the packet of snippits and papers that Reinhold and Katherine shared with me. Although Katherine didn't know anything about them, and they didn't make any or much sense to us, they came from the files of Ida Krieg, our grandmother. There were some Swiss documents that we didn't know anything about (now I know more and will tell you later). Little as they were, they led me to other remote facts. In these posts, I will record now and then that certain items came from the collection of Katherine and Reinhold. They originally belonged to Ida.
What all of the above eventually resulted in, was a history of Krieg Brothers Chevrolet Company, of Thrall, Texas. Using the memories of the cousins and uncles, I wrote this history of the memories of the uncles, aunts and cousins, to compile as much "regional" information as possible. Afterwards, I shared the history with every branch of the family. The reports have probably been lost in the shuffle, so I plan to enter the report on this blog eventually. When I get to the Kriegs, this report will be helpful in imparting the history of the Kriegs in Williamson County from about 1920 to 1950.
As recently as last year, Earl brought me an item from the Krieg family Bible which was a typewritten Christmas poem on which paper my father had signed his name in cursive handwriting. It must date from about 1920. One never knows what might become valuable as a clue to the history. When I get to that point, I will tell about that little adventure of the Christmas poem.
