Woohoo--Jansons from Germany!

It's incredible...after YEARS of investigating, the blog actually paid off this week😄.  I'm only sorry Larry's no longer here to appreciate it.  Here's some background, you'll recall:

Cousins Josef and Johannes Janson and their families left Balzfeld, Germany in 1883 (125 years ago!) and settled in Buckman, Minnesota.  Josef luckily became my great grandfather via his son Anton and his grand-daughter Orlinda (my mom).  The farm they settled on is still the Janson farm, a mile west of Buckman.

 Last summer, cousin Dave Janson and his family toured Europe.  They visited the Balzfeld-Horrenburg area (a few miles south of Heidelburg), where they met another lovely Janson family--Kai and his wife and two sons.  (The connection was thru Diana Jung, a wonderfully friendly local woman I met online when I found Balzfeld-Horrenburg on Facebook 😊).  The party truly was a reunion, hosted by Roger and Janice, there on the farm.

So, why do we think we're connected to Kai and fam (besides the name)?  Ha--Kai and both sons have middle names that are "family names":  Kai Otto Janson, his wife Kathrin, and sons Marvin Daniel and Leon Sebastian...plus Kai is just as obsessed with family history as I am.   

We talked as fast as we could.  Kai had a printout on the wall of the Janson family as far as he knew it.  But of course his research goes as far as his family now, but doesn't include many of those who left, while my research goes up to when Josef left Germany in 1883, but misses those who stayed in Europe.  We didn't actually find the connection, but we will!  

Kathrin brought the definitive story on the "Zum Wilden Mann"--but I don't have a working scanner, so I'll have to type it out.  The internet is a little weird tonight, too, so I'll type that for the next post. 

HOORAY that we got to meet Kai and family--  

Das leben ist gut!