A Project Proposal
The Domino Effect
“A ship is always safe at the shore, but that is not what it is built for.” -Albert Einstein
Barbara Hellmann, my grandmother, is a ray of light in my life and in many others. Her beginnings were plagued with a father who left her on her own and a mother who died when she was six. She has a fascinating story based around fleeing Estonia while it was under Nazi occupation and growing up in the United States without her parents. She is someone that I look up to and that I go to in times of need. She takes my breath away with her wise words, everlasting optimism, and infectious humor. She also is a descendent from our German ancestors and serves as my closest connection to our heritage. I hope in my interview with her, she will reflect on the major chances she has taken and how they influenced her life.
2005.
I gave my parents one more big hug before they left me for a month to go to China. I remember fear encasing my small 7 year old body as they left me. I missed them the second they shut the worn mahogany door, only leaving behind their familiar scent. At that moment, I looked to my caregiver, my grandmother, for reassurance that it would be alright. This was the first moment in my life that I truly spent a long period of time with my grandmother. When my parents left, I was unable to see the adventure that was ahead of me by getting to stay with her. Within minutes she made me forget all my worries and made me grow comfortable in her presence. As I wiped salty tears from my face, she whipped out a new card game she had bought for us to play. We played a few hands and I grew excited by the idea of winning and winning big, as my grandma had brought a king-sized hershey’s bar for whoever won the game. I could taste the smooth chocolate as I eyed it greedily. At first she let me win, trying to cheer me up. I screamed out “Rummy” enthusiastically and I thought I was more observant than her; However once I grew more skilled at the game and my sorrow was gone, she kicked my butt. She kept throwing down hand after hand and eating the chocolate smugly as I watched with my arms crossed. I’m sure I had that stereotypical 7 year old pouty face and was acting like a very sore loser. I was very aggravated that my grandma was so much better than me, but I respected that she didn’t treat me like a child and that she challenged me. This one game made me adore her and admire her more than anyone else in my family. The rest is history.
Once upon a time…
Ever since I can remember, my grandparents have called me their Princess. I received countless Princess related gifts and outfits. No night was complete without a bedtime story, which usually consisted of a tall tale or a fairy tale of some kind. These stories weren’t always the happily ever after that a child was hoping for before she fell asleep. Some of these stories were very dark but they compelled me and helped me to understand that life isn’t always just bright and happy. These were stories for the young and the old, which is why I believe my Grandma always enjoyed telling them to me. Fairy tale characters reveal their inner thoughts through their actions. The British author Phillip Pullman explained, “the characters have little inner life; their motives are clear and obvious”. I am looking at the Grimm’s Fairy Tales in order to learn more about German culture and history. I believe that my Grandmother acts in a similar way to that of fairy tale characters. Her inner motives and ideas about something are only revealed through her actions. She makes rash and large changes and she is not afraid to do so. She understands the importance of chance.
Big Winnings
If I were to describe my grandma’s life in two words they would be “big winnings”. Every Thursday at 5 you can find my grandma sitting in an old wicker chair with 7 other 80+ year old women. I can see her now, letting out a loud and obnoxious “woo hoo” as she threw down her hand, a royal flush, at the poker table. Her friends would be beginning to grow irritated at her endless luck and her pride over her winnings, but it was all in good fun. She loved to boast her victories and gamble with her friends every Thursday night while sipping a chilled Bloody Mary cocktail with fresh lemons, celery, and Worcestershire sauce seeping into the drink. What seemed like a meaningless game of poker to any outsider, was a time of friendship, food, and frivolity for these 8 women. They didn’t only get together to test their odds or to smell the familiar scent of a worn deck, but rather to use poker as an excuse to gossip and boast about whose grandchildren are more impressive. I believe my grandmother enjoys this setting so much and is so successful in a clean game of poker because she has always gambled in her life. The definition of gamble is “to take risky action in hopes of a desired result, or an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success”. Life is a gamble. My grandma taught me to take risky chances because life and opportunities aren’t something you should “fold” on. Sure, sometimes you have to “bluff”, hope for the best, and hope no one sees through you, but eventually you get big winnings. Her big winnings were her family, which she believes is the most important thing in her life.
How do the Grimm’s fairy tales and my Grandma’s gambling success relate to my family history? Well for one thing a common theme in my family history has been taking chances and doing what others may not expect. The Grimm’s Fairy Tales relate to our story as they provide insight into German nationalism during around the time in which my ancestors lived there. To continue, the fairy tales relate to chance, which is still a large part of my family’s life today. These chances defined who my family became and it changed our family history.
Mom’s Side: The Graham’s
One of the major chances that my ancestors took was when my 8th Great Grandfather migrated to America from Germany. Civil unrest and religious struggles motivated many people in the Rhine region of Germany to go to America, and more specifically to Philadelphia. The normal course of travel for a Palatinate emigrant was to trip down the Rhine River and arrive in Rotterdam. From there, my 8th great-grandfather Ludwig Winkler would’ve went across an English port to Philadelphia.
Deciding to leave Germany was a large risk. He traveled aboard the ship, Edinburgh on September 30, 1754 when he was 28 years old. Many people grew deadly ill on this journey. He had to take an oath upon arriving in the states. The oath the immigrants took when entering the United States was given in English so many men didn’t even understand it.
The oath was as follows:
“We subscribers, natives and late inhabitants of the Palatinate upon the Rhine and places adjacent, having transported ourselves and families into this province of Pennsylvania, a colony subject to the crown of Great Britain, in hopes and expectation of finding a retreat and peaceable settlement therein, do solemnly promise and engage that we will be faithful and bear true allegiance to his present majesty, King George II, and his successors, kings of Great Britain, and will be faithful to the proprietors of this province, and that we will demean ourselves peaceably to all his said subjects and strictly observe and conform to laws of England and this province, to the utmost of our power.”
I chose to focus mostly on the Winkler’s journey and the chances they took because they seemed to be the most unlikely members of my family to uproot themselves and move their entire lives to a new place. Also they are the reason that most of my ancestors come from Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where many Pennsylvania Dutch migrated. The Winkler’s uprooted my family from Germany and changed our history by living in the United States.
Dad’s Side: The Hellmann’s
My grandad’s parents immigrated from Prussia to Missouri around the 1820s. It is miraculous that both sides of my family decided to take a similar chance and a similar journey to get to the United States and that both sides were Lutheran.
My ancestors Maria Schlueter and Frederich Wessel were believed to be Old Lutherans. Old Lutherans were German Lutherans in Prussia who refused to be a part of the union of churches in the 1840s. During this time, Lutheran church services were banned. King Frederich Wilhelm III ordered that clergy that did not accept the Union would be dismissed or even arrested. The suppression of Old Lutherans inspired them to emigrate to the United States. Due to this they were amongst other Old Lutherans whom formed the Lutheran Church in Missouri.
Like that of the Graham’s, my dad’s family came to the United States due to suppression and hopes of a new beginning. Moving to the United States, changed my family’s location, history, and life. If they had not relocated, then many of my ancestors would not have met their husbands or wives, thus, causing many of their children to have never been born.
I would like to discover why my ancestors were willing to take such large chances and how these may have been fueled by religion. Both sides of my family come from similar areas and share the fact that they are both Lutheran. Both sides chose to leave and migrate to somewhere in America. And the majority of both sides chose to live only a county over from each other in the state of Georgia. I would like to further explore the similarities in both sides of my family and in the choices they made. Why were we these choices so similar? How were they religiously motivated? What made them be willing to leave their home and leave everything behind?
Barbara Hellmann, now 84, has 5 children, 9 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. I would like to use this project to capture her spirit and her impressive role in our massive family. She is the glue that holds the family together. I plan to learn about our family history and understand how opportunities and chance shape the next generation of one’s family. As my grandma would say, always relating things to games and gambling,
“It’s a domino effect Abby, every action and decision sparks something else to happen”.
I plan to discover how all of our dominos fell into place the way that they did.
The following questions I will be asking my Grandmother:
*These are subject to change over the course of the project*
1. What’s your full name and place of birth?
2. How would you describe your hometown?
3. How would you describe your parents and your childhood?
4. Our family is wildly close-knit, was this the case for your cousins, uncles, aunts, and other relatives?
5. Do you prefer Illinois or where you live now?
6. Why do you like gambling?
7. You were very young at this time but do you remember any of the Great Depression? How did it affect your family?
8. Do you remember a time when gambling was prohibited even though the Prohibition era ended a year after you were born?
9. Can you tell me about your experience with World War II? What was it like to have Poppy go to war?
10. What about the civil rights movement?
11. Tell me about how you met Poppy.
12. Do you believe family is defined by blood?
13. Why did you move to Georgia?
14. What do family vacations mean to you?
15. What is the riskiest chance you ever took? How did it change your life?
16. Where were your parents from?
17. How has religion shaped your life, if it has? What about Poppy’s life?
18. Are there any traditions that Poppy has passed down from his German roots? For example, since he loves to cook, maybe a family dish?
19. Why do you think our family primarily lives in Georgia, and even more specifically in Forsyth and Fulton county?
20. My dad always tells me stories about you taking in people in need. He claims you let friends, travelers, and the homeless stay with your family in their times of need. Were you ever scared to do this? Why did you do this?
Working Bibliography
Acocella, Joan. “Once Upon a Time.” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. “Tales, Magic, and Fairy Tales.” Magic Tales and Fairy Tale Magic (2014): 1–10. Web. 4 Feb. 2017.
Grimm, Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm, Brian Alderson, and Michael Foreman. The Brothers Grimm: popular folk tales. London: Gollancz, 1996. Print.
Takenaka, Ayumi, and Mary Johnson. Osirim. Global Philadelphia: immigrant communities old and new. Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 2010. Print.
Mechanic, Michael. “His Grimm Materials: A Conversation With Philip Pullman.” Mother Jones. N.p., Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Takenaka, Ayumi, and Mary Johnson. Osirim. Global Philadelphia: immigrant communities old and new. Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 2010. Print.
Woodward, Virginia. “German immigration to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s — Lynn-Heidelberg Historical Society.” German immigration to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s — Lynn-Heidelberg Historical Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
