Making a gigantic jump in time to modern-day Poland, we may take the courage to research the Princely / Ducal name Gulkowski / Gulgowski arms Strzemie in the truly monumental genealogy library of Dr. M.J. Minakowski and experience the success of locating our surname also in his scholastic records. The small orthographic error, i.e. the absence of the letter "s" between the "w" and the "k" does not deduct from this valuable discovery. Your considerate attention is invited to the exhibit below.
As clearly visible above, H.M. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary and other Crown Lands bestowed Imperial Princely status upon the Gulkowski / Gulgowski Dynasty in the year 1754. In this regard, special recognition must be extended to the three Silesian Wars fought by the Habsburg and the Hohenzollern principally about Silesia, or Galizia as this domain was referred to by the Imperial Government of Austria-Hungary. These wars were fought from 1740 through 1763, resulting in that Austria-Hungary lost most of Galizia to the Kingdom of Prussia. The following documentation, the list of noble families in Galizia and Bukowina, shows the Gulkowski / Gulgowski Dynasty on record since at least 1857, with a reconfirmation annotated in the year 1788. Your considered attention is invited to following attachment.
The Polish Genealogical / Heraldic Service Organization lists the Gulgowski Family name and its direct derivatives in the geographic area within generally western zones of the Republic of Poland today, areas that were governed during previous centuries by Austria-Hungary and West Prussia.
Gulgowski Family Name Frequency Assessment
DUCAL/PRINCELY HOUSE GULGOWSKI-DOLIWA
(On our previous websites, we utilized the informational titles Ducal / Margravial, Ducal / Princely; however now, because of tremendous research successes achieved, we may, thanks to Empress and Queen Maria Theresa of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Galicia, etc., prudently and properly call ourselves the Princely and Ducal House Gulgowski-Doliwa.)
The third webmaster of this website is
H.M.S.H. Grand Dame Heide A.M. Princess Gulgowski-Doliwa, The Duchess of Schlesien-Glogau
3) In this vein, one final, categorical statement is necessary to be made: This DNA report, with all its exciting and validating facts, does not allow me to claim in its entirety the above mentioned historical aristocratic personages of great renown as my direct ancestors. Out of decency, moral integrity and prudence, I do not make this claim in its totality. There is, nevertheless, a very large DNA element that would indeed support me, in case I would be so inclined. This is the most unselfish position I can possibly assume in this regard.
4) In retrospect, I cannot but help myself to offer one additional observation: However diligent one one may have progressed through the annals of family history, the study of related individuals and governmental records on all echelons, there is never a complete accounting for the end results of premarital or extramarital romantic or just purely sexual liaisons. Obviously, they "throw you a 'curve ball' " every time. And this DNA study proves this emphatically well.
This concludes our abbreviated but most fascinating account of our DNA investigatory exploits. Hopefully, our valued readers will agree with us on this point.
Head Coach and Team Captain, Paul II (with ball),
Hereditary Duke of Schlesien-Glogau
(Patent US 20120085544).
CONCLUSIONS
Here are my personal concluding thoughts I would like to extend to our highly appreciated readership.
1) My deeply private conviction is that I have not, despite my modern-day scientifically compelling DNA inheritance, become the composite end result of all that was objectionable within my historical DNA benefactors, since I have always strived to live according to my Christian faith and personally developed and constantly enhanced intellectual, moral and ethical standards presented to me by the very best worthwhile to immolate examples that great humanity enlightened and oriented philosophers brought throughout the ages and have bestowed unto me either by their noble word-of-mouth or their shining volumes of writing.
2) Still, I am grateful to my DNA ancestors for having provided me with an immense capacity to achieve excellence in my private and professional life, to wit my intellectual predisposition to strive for and to obtain advanced leadership positions in the armed forces, maritime services, academia, authorship and statewide unions for educators.
At this particular time, it may not be wrong or inappropriate to mention my son, Paul II, who, as a technical research scientist and inventor as well as prominent leader of popular sports, has already made, despite his young age, prominent contributions to strategic technological requirements that have benefited all mankind.
Coat-of-Arms of Russia/Hesse
H.I.M.Empress Consort Alexandra Feodorovna of
Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church
6) My DNA is, last but not least, enhanced by H.I.M. the Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, together with her entire martyr family canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, of the Grand Ducal House of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father was Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and her mother was Princess Alice of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, i.e. the House of Windsor, formally Saxe-Gotha.
King Niall Noigiallach of
This Irish King may claim the despicable fame that comes along with being a most shrewd and financially successful hostage taker, one who succeeded to extort untold amounts of gold, silver and precious stones from relatives and friends of important and dearly beloved people he had savagely kidnapped.
His modus operandi was to navigate the Rhine, the Weser, the Elbe, the Oder and the
Genghis Khan, Supreme Khan of the Mongols
After having reached the most western limits of his empire, he must have run into the various small Gulgowski ancestral clans and their women folk, as well. Whatever one might be inclined to think about this development, he, too, is now a substantial part of our DNA.
Secondary research suggests, DNA evidence of Genghis Khan may also be somewhat suspect. Nevertheless, “an international group of geneticists studying Y-chromosome data have found that nearly 8 percent of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire carry Y-chromosomes that are nearly identical. That translates to 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million descendants living today.” (Hillary Mayell, National Geographic News, 14 February 2003.)
Studies strongly suggest that genetic drift must be ruled out in the Great Khan’s case, because for that to be true, it was just too rapid, hence, it must be the result of selection. The author of the aforementioned papers proposes that his lineage is carried by male descendents of Genghis Khan and his close male relatives, and that it has “spread through social selection due to the power that Genghis Khan and his direct descendants held and a society which allowed one man to have many children through having multiple wives and widespread rape in conquered cities. “ (Descent from Genghis Khan, Wikipedia)
Genghis Khan and his descendants extended the empire and maintained power in the region for several hundred years, in civilizations in which harems of concubines were the norm. And the masters of these establishments were markedly prolific. The Khan’s eldest son, Tushi, was known to have had at least 40 sons. After their geographic conquests, looting, pillaging and rape were the spoils of war for all soldiers of the Khan’s army. However, the Khan enjoyed the privilege of priority selection of the most beautiful women. Kubilai Khan, one of his grandsons, who had established the Yuan Dynasty in
Concluding this particular element of my Genghis Khan connection let it be fully understood that by no means all female conquests were incorporated into their permanent harem. Many, who had not been murdered after having been sexually abused, were allowed to remove themselves from the Khan’s compound and were permitted to return to the fold of their families. This was especially true in the outer limit regions of the Khan’s conquests.
This happened not necessarily because of genuine humanitarian considerations, but because the favorite wives of the Khan, so to speak the senior female leadership of the harem, frowned upon having to integrate younger, more beautiful and possibly more exciting women into their organization, since they did not welcome their competition for senior leadership and personal influence.
In one of the great halls of Palais Lanckoronsky, from the viewers’ point of view on
the right side, we can clearly make out the portrait of General Staff Major
Count Peter Golkowski (Gulkowski).
Hence, it is not totally inconceivable that Count Golkowski had called on the French Queen during one of his extended visits to
There remains one unanswered question: What happened to their lovechild, if any? Well, any reasonably informed student of military affairs knows about the wonderful and very useful institutions of military boarding schools, where young Princes born out of wedlock or as a result of frowned-upon sexual liaisons could grow up to be well-educated young men, exceedingly schooled in the art and science of military arms, skills they eventually used for the greater glory of their respective countries on the battlefields of the future.
In researching the cause and effect relationship as it pertains to my DNA results, as outlined immediately above, there is no doubt that the three Silesian Wars (1740 – 1763, where the Austrian Galicia became the Prussian Silesia) contributed immensely to the liaisons of the personages described above. It were those wars that made Vienna and Paris major settlement areas for the largely disenfranchised Polish- origin nobility, as they became ex-patriots in countries to whom they maintained in their hearts and in their minds affectionate relationships.
Since time immemorial, it has become the unpleasant and outright heinous custom of conquering and occupying foreign armies to loot the land they march on and to help themselves to what ever pleasures can be derived by imposing themselves on more or less unwilling women, whose tragic purpose it had become to serve members of conquering armies as “comfort women” or worse. This was certainly also true for the massive armies of the Great Khan from the East.
Genghis Khan’s route of conquest is featured below.
This type of thing was, after all, not entirely unheard of given the extensive romantic exploits of Czarina Catherine the Great (*2 May 1729 - +17 Nov. 1796) with the lesser nobles of her realm.
Given the reported and deplored physical and mental ineptness of Maria Theresa’s Emperor Consort, H.I. & R.H. Franz I, the man who proclaimed one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most splendid compositions possesses too many notes to be truly outstanding, it is probably not too great an assumption to make that Her Majesty the Empress of Austria / Hungary may have had to go to “better men” to find the intellectual and physical stimulus at the end of her very trying and extremely hard-working duty days. But then again, in respect to the wonderfully enlightened Empress, the assumptions above may just be speculations. Alas, who truly knows?!
b) Another distinct possibility as to how Queen Marie Antoinette’s DNA ended up in the author’s, is the strong chance that Count Peter Golkowski (Gulgowski), a contemporary of the French Queen, who had known her as a blossoming Imperial and Royal Princess at the Court of her esteemed great mother, while he himself was residing at Palais Lanckoronski in Vienna. Now, Count Golkowski was not just any General Staff Major, but the last Aide-de-Camp of the last Polish King, Stanislaus II, August Poniatowski (*17 Jan. 1732 - +12 Feb. 1798), who, himself, had enjoyed an extensive liaison with the great Russian Czarina.
3) The Gulgowski (Gulkowski / Golkowski) connection to the Imperial and Royal House of Habsburg can actually be easier explained and historically documented than the one pertaining to President Thomas Jefferson.
a) Page 98 of the Hohenzollern Collection of 1831 (please see below) clearly manifests that H.I & R.H. Empress Maria Theresa (* 13 May 1717 - + 29 Nov. 1780) advanced Count (no first name or middle initial available) Gulgowski (Gulkowski) to the esteemed ranks of Imperial Prince and Duke during March 1752. As reason for his elevation was given Gulgowski’s meritorious achievements on behalf of the Hungarian / Austrian Empire. This leaves us to wonder however, if the meritorious achievement of Prince / Duke Gulgowski may have to do with him having extended to the Austrian / Hungarian Empress his very “personal” attention.
President Thomas Jefferson
Young Mother with Son, by Jens Juel (1745-1802)
Last, but not least, we like our esteemed readership to be cognizant of the fact that Thomas Jefferson and a certain Gulgowski female ancestor were both of younger age during their liaison and as such were most likely pre-dispositioned to create a male offspring, who would carry the name Gulgowski and pass it on to a chain of male descendants, to which also the author of this treaties belongs.
.
Resigned to Eternal Sadness, by an unknown artist,
exhibited in
Their lot in life became that they were considered “damaged goods” that no one wanted for their wives. Instead, they never married, ending up in a convent and the issue of their basically illegitimate liaison, male or female, lived on with the surname of their fathers, in this case Kolkowski / Golkowski / Golgowski / Gulgowski.
Vanishing Innocence, by Olga Gouskova,
on display in
b) Thomas Jefferson had a second chance to “endear” himself to a Gulgowski female, or vice versa, while he served as U.S. Minister to
Our readers are kindly reminded that the
(*King Frederick the Great of Prussia had accorded Princely Status upon the Gulgowski Family according to the Institute Deutsche Adelsforschung (Institute of German Nobility Research) “Former Polish Nobility of West Prussia,” 1772, Page 7, 1993. However, according to Prussian documents in possession of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Hohenzollern Collection of 1831 records the above mentioned gracious act of the Prussian Kingdom with a date of 14 November 1819, which is quite a while later but still of great consequential relevance.)
To avoid a popular misunderstanding about the ladies who had sacrificed their personal, ethical integrity and physical chastity, in most instances they were not married by a “handsome Prince” to live happily ever after.
Countess Walewska
Emperor Napoleon
By the way, the later to Colonel of Infantry promoted Count Stanislaw Golkowski eventually escaped a severe Court Martial sentence for his trensgretion and was generously permitted to return to his homeland by order of Brigadier General Count Casimir Pulaski, Commander of the famous Pulaski Legion.
This, for American readers somewhat unusual, out-of-the-ordinary development could possibly have also gone to the credit of one of the Gulgowski female ancestors and was not absolutely, necessarily alone due to
To illuminate this point a little further, the lovely Countess Marie Walewska, who was married to the elderly Count Athenasius Colonna-Walewski, was motivated to “present” herself to Emperor Napoleon during his occupation of Poland, to make him inclined to treat the Polish nation with the utmost of possible gentility and generosity during his stay there, as he prepared for his invasion of Czarist Russia at the time. A son, Alexandre Joseph, was born out of this historically acknowledged and legally recorded liaison.
Coat-of-Arms of the Polish
(Stanislaw Golkowski was a member of the above Battle Clan.
This coat-of-arms was awarded by King Bolestaw Chrobry initially
to Chev. Strzemie sometime between the years 1001 and 1025,
during one of his military campaigns in
2 ) The Jefferson-Gulgowski connection cannot be that easily explained. However, there is sufficient historical evidence to show a logically credible connection even here:
a) While Thomas Jefferson served as Governor of and Delegate from
* (The surname changes marked above had nothing to do with a progressive type of linguistic development. It was much more brought about by one or both of the following considerations.
1) The host revolutionary government utilized this somewhat unscrupulous modus operandi to separate a person from its roots and ancestry.
2) Because of the precariousness and uncertainty regarding the final outcome of the American Revolutionary War, some individuals resorted to disguising their surname to make it harder for the British to pursue, find and punish them for their in British eyes treasonable activities.)
This information was obtained through the study of “Famous Polish Officers” by Martin S. Nowak, 2011. Another source confirming the above historical fact is a personal letter addressed to Brigadier General Edward Hand by non other than George Washington on 7 February 1779, which states that Count Gulgowski had been returned to Europe without having been subjected to a Court Martial for his indiscretion in procuring food for his soldiers stationed at that time in Minisink, N.J. (Washington Files, Headquarters Middle Brook, 7 February 1779.)
Count Stanislaw Golkowski was the second of only two Polish officers George Washington had personally interviewed after they had been recommended to him by Benjamin Franklin from
Coat-of-Arms of the House of Habsburg under
Maria Theresa and Franz I.
H.I. & R.M. Empress Maria Theresa of
H.I. & R.M. Marie Antoinette, Princess of the
and Queen Consort to the King of
Coat-of-Arms of the Kingdom of Bavaria
Although, King Ludwig II was not the last King of beautiful and enchanting
H.M. King Ludwig II of
(Proponent of the Proverb: “Under the blue-white sky of
One of my in space of time closer Russian relatives, Captain Nikolai Petrovich Gulkovski, served the same purpose I did as a U.S. Army First Lieutenant, maintaining world peace in the divided city of Berlin, except that he performed his duties on the “other side” of the now past historic Berlin Wall.
The Russian Gulgowskis were related to or closely associated with the following prominent Russian Dynasties: The Grand Dukes Nicholaevich, the Gurkos, the Kovalevskiis, The Princes Orlof and The Imperial House of Romanov. Both the Genebase Ancestry Project Company and the Ancestry.com Organization, which we consulted as a secondary confirmatory source, maintain that forty percent of all Gulgowskis can claim Mediterranean origin and twenty percent possess Russian heritage.
The somewhat limited, yet very interesting surname-related details featured above, structurally support in a round-about way the extensive onomastic facts established in “The Odyssey of the Royal Surname Gulgowski,” especially summarized in II Language and III Research.
The Haplotype frequency in male individuals from Western Europe espouses DYS 19=14, DYS 388=12, DYS 390=24, DYS 391=11, DYS 392=13, DYS 393=13. The Gulgowski surname group matches Y-DNA to an exceedingly high degree of alleles as per the DNA Ancestry Project Certificate of 23 February 2013.
The Gulgowski/v. Look DNA Ancestry Project recognizes the following famous historical personages in order of the highest Haplotype comparability percentage. They are:
1) Her Royal Majesty, Queen Marie Antoinette of
2) President Thomas Jefferson (95,2%) [Historic connection to the family of Count
Stanislaw Golkowski – Gulgowski – (
3) Genghis Khan,The Supreme Khan of all Mongols (76,8%)
4) Irish King Niall Noigiallach (52,8%)
5) Her Imperial Majesty, Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress Consort to the Czar of All the
Russians (large, yet not quantified percentage, as is the present-day projectional
standard for all female DNA assessments.)
The above findings are explained as follows:
1) A review of the maternal branch of our genealogy clearly matches the Haplotype of the late Queen Marie Antoinette of
Coat-of-Arms of Chelyabinsk
Coat-of-Arms Tver
Another Russian relative of mine, Nikolai Antonovich, who was born on 23 October 1921, emerged as one of the great heroes of World
War II from the Chelyabinsk area, which is part of the Ural Mountain Region.
The annals of the ancient city of
Coat-of-Arms
FINDINGS
As the principal item of introduction, let it be known that the Gulgowski DNA had its verified origin of primary refinement 130,000 years ago in what is today known as
The v. Look DNA is 20,000 years senior to the Gulgowski DNA. It, too, had its established roots in
Returning to my father’s DNA, about 2000 B.C., the Arians most likely came from the plains of western Central Asia, west of the
The Arians were warlike nomads, who measured their wealth in livestock. The more peaceful people of the
Another essential point of noteworthy recognition is the fact that the Arians’ class system of war nobles, priests and common people was fairly flexible and individuals could move socially upward with relative ease, if merited. They believed in their immortality.
These invaders made significant contributions to the civilizations of the Indian sub-continent. They and their contributions eventually blended with the previous civilizations of the
Connecting with the paragraph above, a verified Gulgowski (Savvaty Gul’kovskii, nick-named Gulkovsk) an inventor by profession, is mentioned 1486 in the Chronicles of Vologda and resided at that time in Gagra (Abkhazia), today known as Vologda Oblast.
The above indicated genetic genealogy report consists of 71 pages from which I gleamed the most salient points of compelling interest to our friends, acquaintances and general readership. This synopsis will spare as much as possible all our limited readership the technological, scientific, nomenclature-type language involved and instead emphasize the history that connects to our Royal Surname Odyssey.
Note of general introduction: Initially, it was our intention to integrate this DNA report, prepared by Genebase.com,
Another consideration that went into this decision was the fact that the DNA report with a classified number of Y-DNA markers and the mtDNA that arose from 11 key-detectable events over the past 150,000 years, was prepared last in the reconnaissance of our past and for this very reason should also be permitted to stand alone.
Explained and Illustrated
by
Prof. Dr. Paul W. Prince Gulgowski-Doliwa,
The Duke of Schlesien-Glogau and
Edited by
Grand Dame Heide Anna Maria Princess Gulgowski-Doliwa,
The Duchess of Schlesien-Glogau
DNA Spiral
DNA* TESTING FOR GENETIC GENEALOGY
(*Deoxyribonucleic acid containing the multi-layered molecule that carries the genetic code of humans and other organisms)
Paul's DNA Certificate
Herren Chiemsee Castle, Bavaria, Hall of Mirrors
DNA is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses. It determines what the organism is like, it appearance, how it survives and how it behaves in its environment(s). It also conveys much about the subject of this study.The Odyssey of the Royal Surname Gulgowski-Doliwa
Part VI, DNA Study of Prof. Dr. Paul W. Prince Gulgowski-Doliwa,
The Duke of Schlesien-Glogau, CLJ
Boy Dreaming of Noble Knights in Shining Armor
Painted by the Prominent Russian Artist Sergei Panasenko (Mikhalkin)
-O-O-O-O-O-
The "Johanniter" are the Royal Prussian branch of the Order of St. John of Malta. They were initially constituted by the Royal and later the Imperial House of Hohenzollern, the very same Dynasty that also published the Hohenzollern Collection pertaining to the Princely / Ducal House Gulgowski, presently safeguarded by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The brevet below certifies the award of the Medal of Honor of the Prussian branch of the Order of
St. John to Sir Paul Gulkowski. Obviously, this Sir Gulkowski is none other than the genuine and living Paul Gulgowski, the author of this website.
I remembered these names immediately, as our sponsors in Pferdsfeld had told us of these relatives and that they had immigrated to the United States prior to the commencement of World War I.
And as we stood in front of their gravestones, I vividly remembered a most special last name:
KEHREIN, which translated means: "Come in and feel welcomed."
That is life!!! One never can escape one's past. One last awe inspiring fact: The former Kehrein blacksmith shop in Delafield completely resembles the one that stood in Pferdsfeld. Please note the
indicated red circles on the pictorial map below.
The above Travelogue by Christoph Seipp
is of extraordinary importance to the modern-day Princely/Ducal House Gulgowski-Doliwa,
because of the following dateline historical developments to be viewed in conjunction with the Hohenzollern Collection exhibit provided above.
The Three Silesian Wars fought between Imperial Austria and Royal Prussia basically over the succession to the Throne of the Holy Roman Empire occurred as follows:
I 1740 - 1742; II 1744 - 1745; III 1756 - 1783
H.I. & R.M. Empress Maria Theresia of Austria-Hungary advanced us to Imperial Princely and Ducal status in March 1752, just four years prior to the commencement of the Third Silesian War that was fought from 1756 - 1763. Fundamentally, this historical development ended our Eleven-Year Reign over the Duchy of Lower Silesia, intermittently also referred to as "Schlesien-Glogau."
By Patent of H.R.M. King Frederick the Great of September 1772, we were continued as Princes (Fuersten) of his Domain. Sadly, however, this was not quite the same.
Consequently, Mr. Seipp's travel exploits made abundantly clear, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that at least one esteemed member of the Princely/Ducal House Gulgowski-Doliwa had not just turned his back on Lower Silesia and still remained in evidence of the Gulgowski presence in this part of the world, which was later known as West Prussia.
Thank you so abundantly much, Mr. Seipp.
The "k" phenomena
and the spelling of our surname was/is not just confined to previous, older generations of our genealogy, Princess Audrey Annette, proud trainer and dedicated loyal owner of German Shepherd Amor vom Landwehr-See is an excellent example of this particular, historical predicament. Please note newspaper article with photograph below.
6 July 1989 - 6 July 2014
Thank you so much for having accompanied us in our journey through the ages.
Small red circle: Kehrein blacksmith shop in Pferdsfeld.
Second largest red circle: Gulgowski-Doliwa residence and police station in Pferdsfeld.
Large red circle: The Kehrein Agricultural Estate and restaurant in Pferdsfeld.
By the way, and sadly, Pferdsfeld no longer exists. It had to give way to a NATO Air Force Base.
Thank you for giving this excerpt your kind and sympathetic understanding.
Even during Dr. Paul W. Gulgowski-Doliwa's U.S. Military active duty engagement for friendship with the United States of America, his surname was frequently spelled "Gulkowski" by various high-level German dignitaries and elected officials.
Ladies in general, and the Gulgowski ladies in particular, have, time and again in history, responded to a "women's call of duty" beyond any reasonable expectations of feminine humanity.
To honor them, we take the pleasure and privilege of featuring in the photograph below
the pictorial image of Princess Heide Gulgowski-Doliwa together with her dear departed mother,
Lady Maria Margarete Hegenscheidt nee Notthoff, descentend of the Bavarian Counts Notthoff.
CONCLUSION:
This region may rightfully be considered the cradle for the surnames Glogowski, Golgowski, Gulgowski, Gulkowski, Kulkowski and versions thereof with Russian language suffixes, among other variations, also carrying the letter "v" as this language does not feature the letter "w."
The Former Kehrein Blacksmith Shop and Residence in Delafield, Wisconsin
Crowns are much more than those who are entitled to wear them.
They are a symbol for the entirety of a cultural whole and the idea
of enlightened statesmanship.
An odyssey does not just include "Stone Tablets" of inscribed names and dates of births and deaths. Much more, it is a more or less complete patchwork of historical events, places and most of all, other people that have touched and sometimes even modeled the most personal aspects of our lives.
Just one (of very many) place and name shall be the focus of our attention at this particular time.
Starting with a few glimpses of my, Duke Paul's, early formative life.
Toward the end of World War II, my mother and younger brother Prince Peter were by the Oberhausen (Rhineland) municipal government evacuated to the Soonwald Region of Rhineland Palatinate.
This saved us from the extensive night- and daytime bombarding raids of American and British Air Forces.
Prior to that, the parents of my father had, because of Germany's military misfortune in the East toward the end of World War I, relocated from East Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania to the Ruhr Region.
The Soonwald Region is, among many other villages, also home to the village of Pferdsfeld. Here, we were soon joined by my father, who was benevolently early discharged from a British POW camp in Northern Germany. The French Military Government saw sufficient promise in my father's democratic potential and appointed him Chief of Police for Pferdsfeld and other neighboring villages.
This was fine and dandy in its own right. But how and from what were we to subsist?
This is where the Kehrein Family enters the picture. Of all the villagers, they were the kindest and most generous of them all. They provided us with everything: items of clothing, furniture and, yes, most of all, plenty to eat. To make a long story short, we survived this hardest of all times in Germany, because of the Kehreins!
To this very day, I remain deeply indebted to them. I remember them practically every day and I shall never forget them.
Now, after having resided on three continents and dozens of nations, in military and civil capacities, my wife Princess Heide and I reside in Delafield, Wisconsin.
I ended my military service in Delafield as Chief Army Instructor at St. John's Military Academy.
As an ardent student of history, I frequently visit cemeteries, when and where I ever can.
To be brief, let it suffice that I quite accidently stumbled on the gravestones of William Kehrein (1887 - 1960) and Edward Kehrein (1875 - 1961) in the Delafield cemetery. Kindly see below.