Our Cousin Bill discovers possible Wehrell third cousins of ours in Selestat, Alsace and pays them a visit—Jean Wehrell, his wife Marguerite, and his son, Virgile.  Jean’s daughter Cecile is away at college.  In late 1991, Bill had been on a work assignment to Basel, which lies on the other side of the Rhine from Alsace, France.  He combs the Alsatian phone books for listings of Wehrells and their addresses.  He heads for the nearest one in Mulhouse.  The resident at that address turns out to be a widow in her later years surviving her Wehrell husband and with no English language ability.  A bit flumexed by Bill’s explanation in mixed French and English of why he has knocked on her door, she thinks quickly and redirects Bill to the only other Wehrell she knows—Jean Wehrell, whom she does not know personally, but whom she does know through a newspaper article about the college in Selestat where Jean is a teacher.  She gives Jean’s address to Bill and sends Bill on his way north on a two hour drive to Selestat where Bill eventually knocks on Jean’s door unannounced and is taken in by the family.  The rest is Wehrell family history.

THE ELEVEN WEHRELL COUSINS QUESTION

Grandma and Grandpa had eleven grandchildren from their four sons born over the course of 22 years from 1935 to 1957.  Those eleven grandchildren are the 11 Wehrell first cousins.  Ten of the eleven cousins were able to make the family reunion at Lake Tahoe in 2005.  The ten of them appear in a photo from that reunion posted on this site.  Jimmy, the eleventh, was not able to attend that reunion. He did attend the reunion on Cape Cod in 2008.  A picture of him at the bbq behind the Cove Motel is also posted on this site.  However, several of the other cousins were unable to make that reunion.  Jimmy sadly passed away last December.  There will be no more chances for a photo of all 11 Wehrell cousins together at future family reunions.  The question is whether anyone has a photo from Wehrell family get-togethers in the late fifties or early sixties with all eleven cousins in the photo.  Events such as Nancy Gay’s and Hal’s , or Billy’s (i.e., Jake’s) and Diana’s wedding are possible events where such a photo may have been taken.  If there is such a photo, it needs to be posted on the Blog.

Photos Courtesy of Jack Wehrell

Jack provided these photos. If any one would like to provide captions please send them along and I will gladly add them to the photos.

Happy Mothers Day

Since Mothers day is just around the corner I though that this little video would be an appropriate addition to the blog. 

This photo is of the Jackson family—Grandma’s family.  There are no photos of our family’s gatherings in those days except when the family was able to gather at the local photographic portrait studio in Paterson.  This photo was taken in 1902 or early 1903.  We know that because Uncle Harold was born in  1902—the last child in the family. Missing are the three children that died in the epidemic of 1899.  Can you pick out Grandma?  She was born in 1888.  As well, there are Jackson aunts in the picture who should be familiar to our older Wehrell cousins because they often showed up for the summer weekend picnics on Uncle Ken’s and Aunt Gay’s recreational property in Saddle River with the cabin and the pond.  Aunt Jen, Aunt Lil and Aunt May are among them.

Posting to the Blog

Welcome to the updated and modernized Wehrell Family Reunion Blog. It has been modernized to even work on smart phones and tablets.

Please send all posts and or photos to raklotzbier@gmail.com. I will try to get them up at least weekly if not more frequently.

Photo requirements: Please include a description of the photo the more descriptive the better, as this will be added as a caption to the photo.

For those of you who are not able to make it to the reunion I will be bringing a laptop with me and will try to post photos daily.


If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments feel free to email me.

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