The Family of Johann Heinrich Wielage, jetzt (now) Busch
and
Anna Chatarina Busch, born Devermann
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The 1950s.  Hot summer breezes ... folding chairs in the shade ... picnic tables covered with home made table cloths and rich German cooking (potato salad, fried chicken, jello salads with whipped cream toppings, rich salads, cakes and pies. (No, made from scratch does NOT mean you opened the box yourself. )  Lots of laughter ... men in white shirts and ties, some in suits ... women in pretty homemade dresses, with aprons, of course ... boys and girls (also in dresses) running and playing while others (me) clung closely to their moms ... too many people to count!  It was the annual Busch family reunion in Illinois, USA. My parents and grandparents and their siblings were eternal. I could never remember them any other way than they were then. It seemed like life would go on forever just like this.

The 25th Annual Busch Family Reunion in Mason City, Illinois, USA
The 25th Annual Busch Family Reunion in Mason City, Illinois, USA; held in 1941
Forty years later, my mom (Marjorie Trimpe (Phelps) dusted off her mother's (Lydia Busch (Trimpe) family photo album/scrapbook and asked if my daughter (Erika Widaman (Mellmann) and/or I (Diane Phelps (Veeneman) would like to "fix it". Besides the pages falling out of the book, they were also falling apart. Luckily (I foolishly thought at the time), Grandma (Lydia) was generous with the glue pot and the pictures and newspaper clippings held fast to the brittle pages. While I am at it, I thought, I'll just put everything on the computer. That way any family member can have a copy when I'm done. Thus began a walk back down and way past the end of memory lane.
Marge and Erika at the Busch Family Album Table in 19944
Marge and Erika at the Busch Family Reunion Scrap Book Table in 1994
 Lydia Busch Trimper and daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter
Marge, Diane, Lydia and Erika 1969
As I worked to put together family pictures with names and dates, I began to miss having known everyone. Sitting in front of the computer watching each photo being scanned into the computer, I had a fair amount of time to wonder why all but one of my great grandfather and siblings had left their home in Germany and immigrated to the US. What courage it must have taken for all but one to have left home before the age of 17.

Would at least learning more about the history of Germany and the US give me more of a connection? Naturally, once I began to find information, I became more curious and earned to get more of a sense of a family continuum. Off to the bookstore and the Internet ... and to nag my mom and her cousins to try to remember.

Diane Phelps Veeneman 1948 Email, Internet, WWW and Air Mail provided a connection with our past, lost relatives around the globe and new friends from the family of genealogy research.

Family members of all ages communicating via email were sending new pictures and information. Genealogists in Germany helped translate "old German" writings from northern Germany, our family's homeland. Distant relatives provided their information about branches of our family tree of which we had been unaware.

Without all of these sources and contributors, these pages would never have come into being.

To all - THANK YOU!
Diane
Johann Busch and Anna Devermann Busch had grown up and had children in the area that is now part of Niedersachsen, Germany. Their children, Lizzie, Hermann, Dick, Will and George had left their homeland as teenagers to travel alone across an ocean to the young nation of the USA. Garrent immigrated in his early twenties and Hannah, the youngest, remained at home. The immigrants arrived with little except determination and willingness to work hard. They learned a new language, became naturalized citizens of the United States, worked hard and prospered as they raised their own children in their new homeland. They endured two world wars of their new home fighting their old one with friends and family on both sides. Thirty-six years afater immigrating they came together to celebrate their families' successes and to renew their family bonds. Their annual family reunions continued through both World Wars, many marriages, births and deaths.
Five Busch Brothers at their first reunion in Mason City, IL, in 1912

Pictured here in August, 1912, George, Dick, Will, Garrett and Hermann pose at their first reunion, held 36 years after the first of them immigrated.
If I could relive yesterday, just even for a while, 
I'd say good-bye and kiss you, and maybe see you  smile.
But then I fully realized that this could never be, 
for emptiness and memories would take the place of me.

And when I thought of  worldly things I might miss come tomorrow, 
I  thought of you, and when I did, my heart was filled with sorrow.
But when I walked through heaven's gates, I felt so much at home.
Then God looked down and smiled at me from His great golden throne,

"This is eternity," He said. Your life on earth is past,
I promise no tomorrow, but today will always last.
You  have been so faithful, so trusting and so true,
Though there were times you did some things you knew you shouldn't  do.

Through Christ you've been forgiven and now at last you're free,
So won't you come and take my hand and share my life with me?
So when tomorrow starts without me, don't think we're far apart, 
For every time you think of me, I'm right here, in your heart
-  Anon 
These pages originate from pictures, notes and memories of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and are meant to:
  • act as a cyber/virtual family reunion;
  • expand current family members' knowledge of their ancestors;
  • remember family members' accomplishments, sacrifices and courage;
  • share current information about family members.

    • Contributors to theses family pages:

  • Lydia Catherine Matilda Busch (Trimpe) [Hermann Heinrich Busch] - original reunion scrap book
  • Marjorie Caroline Trimpe (Phelps) [Lydia C M Busch (Trimpe), Hermann Heinrich Busch] - reunion scrap book updates
  • Edwin Louis Busch [Edwin John Heinrich Busch, Hermann Heinrich Busch] - updates, corrections and internet research
  • Howard Kenneth Busch [Herman Busch, Hermann Heinrich Busch] - updates and corrections
  • Robert Earl Busch [Herman Busch, Hermann Heinrich Busch] - updates and corrections
  • Wilma Eileen Busch (Brown) [Herman Busch, Hermann Heinrich Busch] - updates and corrections
  • Dee Ann Busch (Harry Landon, Harry Dietrich, Hermann Wilhelm August Busch] - compiled first written family tree information
  • Diane Marie Phelps (Veeneman [Marjorie C  Trimpe (Phelps), Lydia C M Busch (Trimpe), Herman Busch, Hermann Heinrich Busch] - web pages and updated book
  • Marga Meyer zu Drehle (Kockwelp) [Wilhelmine Johanne Fluszmeyer, Johanna Marie Elise Busch-Wielage] - German family history and Busch-Wielage property history
  • Joerg Mellmann (Erika Leah Widaman's husband) [Diane M Phelps, Marjorie Caroline Trimpe (Phelps), Lydia C M Busch (Trimpe), Hermann Heinrich Busch] - German to English translations
  • Mary Lu Swartz [a very distant, but valuable relative through the Wielage family] - additional Wielage family information
  • Special thanks for translation help of old German writings: Uwe Weddige and Carol SaintWare, members of the Niedersachsen-L@rootsweb.com genealogy group.


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