The Rise and Fall of Families and Nations

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Rosow-webMy great great great grandfather, Jaochim Adolph F. Helm was born in Trollenhagen in 1745. He made his way to Woldegk where he worked as an assistant to the church treasurer. He rose up in the world, in a manner of speaking, when his boss died. He took over the job as treasurer and married his former boss’s wife. (I say he moved up in a manner of speaking because the woman he married, Charlotte Pastov Fuchs, was hardly one of high pedigree. Eight or ten generations back, several generations of her forebears were described in church documents as “assistant executioner.”

In any case, Jaochim’s new position allowed him the luxury of educating his children. My great great grandfather, Johann Theodor J Helm, was sent to study the law. Turns out that reading the law gave him awful headaches so he gave it up, using his inheritance to buy a 500-acre farm in Rosow in about 1825.

At the time, Prussia was developing rapidly and many residents were moving eastward, often displacing the Polish residents who lived in the area. According to family legend, Johann was visiting the town of Stettin to pay rent on 100-acres of meadow land that he leased from the church when he saw a beautiful 10-year-old girl standing on the balcony of her home and promptly fell in love. So in love was he that he waited ten years until she came of age to propose marriage.

Their first son was Julius Helm, my great grandfather. Julius, who was trained as a farmer, fought in the Austro-Prussian war, worked as a military adviser in Wakayama and started Helm Brothers in Yokohama. His siblings were also scattered about Germany and Japan, and the Rosow farm was sold.

Many years ago I came across the website for Rosow. I contacted the webmaster who turned out to be the mayor of the town, which had shrunk to a population of 70, perhaps even smaller than it was in my great grandfather’s time. The mayor thought the barn from my great grandfather’s farm might be still standing.

Now I’m heading back to Eastern Europe and I hope to visit Rosow and find that barn. As I start my research, the only reference I can find to the town is a story about how the depopulated village was now finding new residents and wealthy Poles were coming across the border into Germany and buying up farms and homes in the village. What goes around comes around.


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