Clemens Schreiber - The Genealogist

Map of Germany 1815 - The same year my immigrant ancestor Johannes Blum was born in Ahlersbach. Hessen Kassel is in the center in brown

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On December 10, 2012, I received an email from Sue Foster. She emailed me to let me know that at the end of November our mutual friend Clem Schreiber had had some major heart problems with resulting surgeries.

I came to know of Sue through searching the Internet for information on Kreis (county) Schluechtern. I my search, I found some pages that Sue had put up about her family in Oberkalbach. Find the pages here http://ursula.foster.cc/   She also has a a CD with the marriages of the Kreis of Schluechtern from 1718-1873 found here http://ursula.foster.cc/page73.html

Sue was born in Germany and immigrated to the USA after World War II. Her mother's family was from Oberkalbach which is included in the area of Schluechtern that I was searching.

My immigrant ancestor Johannes Blum came from Ahlersbach in the Kreis of Schluechtern. I contacted  Sue hoping that she could help me in my search for information about my ancestors via her Schluechtern marriage CD. She checked her CD for the marriage of Johannes Blum and Anna Catharina but was unable to find anything. She then referred me to Clemens Schreiber for further help in my genealogical pursuits on the Blum family because the church books for this area are only found in Germany. She gave me his address in Germany and I wrote to him. Present day Ahlersbach is now incorporated into the city of Schluechtern.

Ahlersbach 

Clem lives in the city of Schluechtern and is a native of Germany. He is in his 80's and does not use email but prefers the traditional route of postal service. Lucky for me, he does speak/read English - so the letter writing worked just great.

Clem is amazing! He is a great genealogists with wonderful attention to detail. He has all of the Evangelische (Lutheran) records for the Schluechtern area at his disposal. Most of which he has transcribed and ready for use. He enjoys genealogy and had worked for years helping many people with their own family research. He only charged me $7 per family that he found - which is very inexpensive. Most genealogists charge you much, much more.

I corresponded with Clem for maybe 9 or 10 months in gathering all of my families from Kreis Schluechtern and a few families found beyond this area. He found over 600 people from my family that I did not know about. I learned from Clem and as a result became a better researcher. I can't thank Clem enough for all of the research he did on my behalf. I wish him the best in his return to good health. He truly has been a heavenly aid to many people. There are still good people!

Next time: Part 2 - the story before Clem - Heaven Intervenes.