Uncovering Our Geeck Roots

This “Uncovering Our Roots” section for each family explains how my father (Leonard H. Hellmers, Sr.) and I discovered the home community of each immigrant ancestor in the Hellmers-Neff family.
Norman D. Hellmers


When Dad and I started looking for the Geeck family in Germany, we had no clues at all. We found the family in a passenger manifest (listed as "Geck"), in several census records, and in church and civil records, but none gave any information saying where they were from beyond "Germany."

Trying to find the Geecks in Germany was set aside until 1983, when I tried a genealogy "trick" that occasionally works for an unusual name. I checked what is known as the "IGI" (International Genealogical Index) to see where the name Geeck most frequently occurred in Germany. I found three likely possibilities and sent letters on 23 June 1983 to the Catholic church in each town, since we knew the Geecks were members of the Catholic faith in New Orleans.


I received a response from only one, but it was the correct one. A concise response dated 4 July 1983 from the priest at the Catholic Parish of St. Michael in Rheinzabern, Germany, let me know that we had found the right place. He included a marked up copy of my request (right), a brief note, and photocopies of the baptism records of the Geeck parents and the six children we knew about. (We later learned there was a seventh child, a daughter, who died before the family emigrated.)












A larger image of my original letter is here
and a copy of the priest's note is here.
 Letter to and from the Catholic Parish of St. Michael in Rheinzabern.


A few years later, I sent another letter to the church asking for more information. I received a response from Herr Alois Viktor Marz, who served on the church's Board [Verwaltungsrat] and who also was a knowledgeable and experienced genealogist. Herr Marz said that he used the church record books to research his own family and that he would be able to research ours too. He said that many branches of our family had been in Rheinzabern since at least the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and that he and we were distantly related.


A multi-generation pedigree chart.
 Alois Marz prepared a multi-generation pedigree chart for us that took several of our ancestral lines back to the 1600s.

A larger image of the pedigree chart is here.


The Catholic church in Rheinzabern.
 Alois also sent a photograph of the church at Rheinzabern. In the lower right is the 200-year-old school, which generations of the Geeck and related families attended.

A copy of the letter from Alois Marz is here
and a rough translation is here.


With the basic data provided by Alois Marz, I was able to obtain copies of the original records from microfilms made by the LDS church. By checking the original records, the brothers and sisters of our ancestors could also be added.

The key to our finding the Geecks in Germany, however, was the kindness of the parish priest in 1983 who answered my initial request and the overwhelming generosity of Alois Marz, who provided so much information, asking for nothing in return.


In 2006, while preparing for another trip to Germany, I got in touch with Alois. Learning that we could stop in Rheinzabern, Alois ensured that we would have a memorable visit. On 31 March 2006, after checking into a small inn in the heart of Rheinzabern, we went to the home of Alois and his wife, Johanna. Over the customary German treats, we compared family notes. Alois took us on a walking tour of old Rheinzabern, pointing out landmarks that our Geeck ancestors would have known, including the house where the Geeck family lived and where Philipp Geeck was born. The tour included the inside of the beautiful church, then being renovated. That evening Alois arranged a dinner at a local restaurant that included distant Geeck relatives. The next morning, Alois had arranged for a special meeting with the mayor of Rheinzabern and we were given a special tour of the archeological site and museum associated with the Roman-era pottery making, for which Rheinzabern is famous.


My wife Pat, Norm, and Alois Marz on our walking tour
of old Rheinzabern, 31 March 2006.











Photo by Jeffrey Hellmers, 2006
 Pat, Norm, and Alois Marz in Rheinzabern.


We were able to learn the history of our Geeck family because of the generosity of Alois Marz of Rheinzabern. His kindness and friendship will never be forgotten.


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