The Mysterious German Document!

Discussion in 'Family & Relationships' started by Yvonne Smith, Feb 20, 2019.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    In the paperwork that was left after my mom and dad passed away was an old German document of some sort, and it was from my German grandmother (at least we always thought that), and I thought it was her nursing certificate, but since it was written in old German and in cursive, we had had no idea what it really says.
    Now that we have been tracking the ancestry thing, this is something we wanted to translate and see what it actually is about.
    My grandmother apparently came over around 1890, but the document is dated 1903, so it seemed strange that the nursing certificate from Germany would take so long to get here.

    Tonight, Robin tried entering the German words into the google translation app, and what she got back is nothing even resembling a nursing certificate !
    I thought she was kidding me, but she sent the screenshot of what google translator said, and it only deepens this mystery.

    I am wondering if maybe @Thomas Stearn (or anyone else here that understands German) can translate this for me if I post it on here ?
    Here is the document.
    7A62E216-F911-461E-B0E7-ADC7CF5D8DA0.jpeg
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Here is what google translator says that the English translation is, and if this is what it really says, then I am SO curious what this document is really about ?
    A839F7DA-C784-4F1E-B755-89B26E2EDAF3.jpeg
     
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  3. Thomas Stearn

    Thomas Stearn Veteran Member
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    Very interesting and no nursing certificate at all @Yvonne Smith . It's a kind of fun document issued by her fellow nurses on the occasion of her emigrating to America saying that your grandma was awarded the title of an associate member of an "order" because of both her extraordinary service as a nurse and her outstanding skills as a writer and poetess.
    The underlying message is: We're so sorry you're leaving/have left us. We wish you well and (will) miss you.

    Will give you an exact translation later today.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 21, 2019
  4. Thomas Stearn

    Thomas Stearn Veteran Member
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    Here's my translation:
    Miss Anna Fuhrmann


    In appreciation of her exceptional service (as a nurse) and of her superb poetry read at the Christmas party on 21 Dec. 1902 and on occasion of her leaving for transatlantic territories, our associated/honorary Sister of the Order of the Green Cross at St Hubertus upon A(/O?) is appointed associated/honorary Sister and Mother of the Order of the Four-Legged Pegasus with his (two) Giant Wings which should enable her to keep soaring to higher regions ( in the future).


    Place of issue Großschweidnitz (Saxony) on 20th of the Wintry Month (Jan.) 1903


    The High Privy Commission of the Order
    E.Preußen
    H.Hut(Herrenhut?),P(aula)Eva
    L.Weißkirsch


    Photo (right) showing Royal Saxon Institute (mental hospital) Großschweidnitz

    *************************************************************************
    Großschweidnitz is a small municipality in Saxony the state where I live and is now close to the Polish border. The mental clinic was being built at the time your grandma left. Decades later it became involved in the Nazi euthanasia program. Now there's a psychiatric hospital again and a memorial place as well. I haven't come across any English-language sources yet.
    Interestingly, they didn't use Sutterlin script which was taught at the time. That would have made it a tad more difficult. Taking into account that they couldn't use computers back then, the document is done quite well and, probably, some effort had to be taken to produce it.


    Some pics are here:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Großschweidnitz
     
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    Last edited: Feb 21, 2019
  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    WOW ! What an interesting explanation, @Thomas Stearn , and thank you SO much for translating it for me. This must have meant a whole lot to my grandmother, because she obviously packed it with her belongings for the trip to America, and then kept it all of her life.
    My grandparents were wanderers, starting out in Texas (where there was apparently a fairly large settlement of German immigrants), and then later moving around the whole country.
    My mom told me stories of being chased by Texas longhorn steers when riding to school in a buckboard with other students, and of meeting a writer in Arizona that she thought might have been Zane Grey, when my grandfather was an Indian agent there.
    By the time she was in her early teens, the family was in Zion, Illinois, and then, way out in northern Idaho before she was much older than that.
    Later, my grandparents moved to San Diego, California, and pretty much stayed there after that; but that document spent a lot of years being carried around by my grandmother, and then my mother kept it after my grandmother passed away in the 1950’s.
    I found it after my parents died, and have kept it through a lot of moves myself, and for the last 10-15 years, my daughter, Robin, has had it; but we never had any clue what it said, all of this time.

    In a way, this is even a better piece of family history, since it is not just a graduation document that a lot of other nurses would have also received, it is a special one made just for my grandmother by her dear friends; so thank you again for translating this for me !
     
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  6. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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  7. Thomas Stearn

    Thomas Stearn Veteran Member
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    It was my pleasure @Yvonne Smith. I'm glad that the document is no longer mysterious to you. As I wrote in my thread Have you written your memories?, I've also been busy researching family history and like it very much. Unfortunately, like you, I couldn't share the results of my research with my mother any more because she'd passed away before I had the time to deal with family history. And I'd have liked to ask her a lot of questions. In turn, she'd have been amazed at what I found out about her brother about whom she didn't have any information as it seems. A lot of valuable information gets lost if it is not written down and preserved for future generations. That's why I have been writing my memories. And for those you need illustrations, documents (like yours), letters, images in order to make it readable and informative.

    It seems that most people must have reached a certain age before you really start taking an interest in the history of their family and wider ancestry. I learned from my mother that the brother of her father i.e. my grandpa's brother and his wife also emigrated to America in 1901. She would have been astonished that I did find a record of two US Censuses which listed them and their two kids then living in Collinsville, Madison, Illinois and that her information on one child was wrong. Unbelievable but made possible through the internet. Maybe, I should keep doing some further research...

    I agree that your granny must have cherished that document. That's obvious. It's interesting that immigrants no matter where they are from tend to flock until they have found their feet. Riding to school in a buckboard sounds kind of romantic to me. That's what I saw in Westerns.

    I also agree that such a personal document is better than a standard graduation certificate because it shows that your grandma was liked and, apart from that, you may have learned that she must have loved and written poetry.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 22, 2019

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