In 2009, my husband Tom and I took our 2 daughters to Germany following our oldest’s graduation from high school. Germany was important to me/us because my mother immigrated to the US from Germany in 1923 as an infant with her parents and other close relatives. She never had an opportunity to return to her birthplace (Bitz, Germany) and I regretted not having gone with her to see where she had been born prior to her passing in 2000. So, it was a pretty big deal to me to be able go back to Bitz with my husband and our daughters. We spent a glorious 3 weeks exploring southern Germany and got to visit my maternal birthplace, which was a surreal experience.
I had taken family tree information with me, to see if I could fill in a few blanks and maybe meet some current relatives. Well, we found some of them in a very well-kept church graveyard, and others on a list of WW I and WW II casualties from Bitz, but not much luck beyond that.
The search for relatives, though, is a pretty fun story that I’ll share another time. The whole family did indeed pile into a car with a complete stranger to visit an elderly lady who was not particularly pleased that we showed up at her house!
But we did have a sit down with the mayor of Bitz and were able to purchase the book in this photo (Familienbuch Bitz : die Familien der Gemeinde Bitz im Zollernalbkreis von 1584 bis 1900) – basically a book of all the people who had lived in Bitz from 1584 – 1900!
Which included TONS of family info that I did not have in my records.
Goldmine!
I’ve used this book many times over the years to trace our German roots.
Well, I thought I’d lost that book a few weeks ago…
I was devastated! I looked high and low, in all the places it SHOULD have been, and several (many…) places it shouldn’t have been. I emailed the Bitz mayer to ask if they had another copy I could buy. I exchanged emails with a bookseller in Baden-Württemberg (in German!) to try and find a copy.
No luck.
The only copy I could find in the US was in the FamilySearch Library in Utah, and I don’t plan on being in Utah any time soon.
Or Germany, which is where the other copies reside.
The author is deceased.
I was heartsick at the thought of having lost this treasure of a book.
What I thought had happened, was that I had hurriedly taken about 10 bags of items to donate to Goodwill back in July prior to our going on vacation, and I thought that I must have somehow, STUPIDLY and REGRETABLY, included that book in one of those bags.
Note to self: doing a deep clean causes problems and stress! Avoid avoid avoid! (JK – sort of)
Today, while working from home, I decided to look for the book ONE MORE TIME before heading to the Goodwill to search the shelves. I mean, how many people would actually be interested in buying “Familienbuch Bitz : die Familien der Gemeinde Bitz im Zollernalbkreis von 1584 bis 1900” from Goodwill??
Probably one person. It’s me. I am that person.
But first, I (again) prayed about how much I wanted to find this book. I told God just how precious that book is to me, and how I really wished He’d help me find it if it was anywhere in this house. I said I’d give it one more looksy around the house, and if I didn’t find it, I’d head to Goodwill.
So I went to look one more time.
I looked in the places I’d last remembered seeing (and using) it.
Not there.
Then I went into a different room, the room that had been undergoing a deep cleaning when I took bags to Goodwill.
There was one small box I had not looked in yet, because “I know it’s not in THERE”.
Well, you already know where I’m going with this…
The book was in that box!
I think the book was as happy to see me as I was to see it. Anyway, it looked happy.
I yelled for joy (maybe even jumped, I can’t remember) and thanked God for helping me find the book. I always imagine God with a big smile on his face when stuff like this happens, like he enjoys it when we’re so happy.
I called Tom because I needed to tell someone about this happy thing, and because he knew how sad I was about not being able to find the book. I had actually not mentioned the loss of the book to him for several weeks because I was so embarrassed for misplacing (donating…) it.
Thankfully, he was between meetings and answered the call.
The dizziness of the vertigo I’m having today (it was fun bending over to look in bins and boxes and then almost falling over as the room spins when I lift my head up again!) is nothing compared to the joy I’m feeling at finding this book, which holds so much rich family history.
God is good, even on bad days, and even when you think you’ve really messed up. And sometimes He redeems silly things like books to remind us that He patiently waits and searches for us, even when we hide or misplace ourselves.
You can also bet I will be extra careful as to where this book is placed when I’m not using it from now on…
IYKYK.
Peripheral Wisdom 