Re: Fenzel family coming from Nuernberg area
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In reply to:
Fenzel family coming from Nuernberg area
Sonja G 7/08/01
Dear Sonja,
There seem to be clusters of Fenzels in the USA. There is a clan of Fenzels in the Baltimore, Maryland area. I have spoken to some of them. They claim their German ancestors came from Bavaria. Your ancestors who went to Ohio may be related to the Fenzel for whom a building at Ohio State University is named. Go to their website and see. My grandfather, Adolf Alfred Fenzel, was born in 1881 in Oranienburg, north of Berlin. His father, Julius, was a factory worker who emigrated to America so that his sonswould not become cannon fodder for Bismark's imperial ambitions, and to give them an opportunity to better themselves. My grandfather was 3 when he came to America...and while you can take the boy out of Prussia, you cannot take Prussia out of the boy. Grandpa was a career soldier in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and WWI. Sixty-one (61) years after Julius Fenzel left Germany for America, my father, Alfred, returned to Germany as a Captain of Combat Engineers in the US Army. His younger brother, Hugh Fenzel, was a Lieutenant, seriously wounded in the thigh at Bastogne by artillery shrapnel during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. My uncle Hugh fully recovered and eventially caught up with my father at war's end after Dad had advanced through Germany into Czechoslovalkia.
Julius Fenzel's dream to give his children the opportunity for a better life in America came true. All of the factory worker's great grandchildren have earned college degrees, and most have advanced post-graduate degrees in the professions and business.
More Replies:
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Re: Fenzel family coming from Nuernberg area
Sonja G 2/10/02