It all started with the Internet on a lazy afternoon. Having nothing better to do I inserted Harwerth into the search machine on a common people finder site. I jumped in my chair when the result showed some 32 persons by that name living in the U.S. A little shaky I decided to call one of them in Kansas....

The interest I was met with was phenomenal. Since a trip was planned anyway I decided to visit Bernard and Francis same year.

Change of location: a parking lot in front of a country-side hotel in Colby, KS. Once she heard my mission the lady at the front desk of the hotel was so kind to phone Francis. 15 minutes later Francis and his very nice wife Joan entered the driveway. ...and suddenly we hugged each other. After more than 165 years of family separation two Harwerths from America and Europe met again.

We now started to figure out more about our families, and fortunately I was able to contribute also in finding back to Francis's family roots in the U.S. Together we also visited 90-year old Ben still living on his little farm on the prairie. I was absolutely thrilled to meet the oldest living Harwerth family member in the world. He reminded me a lot on my own Grand Dad Paul. We exchanged pictures and facts and the Genealogy-library started growing. I also met Ben's son Howard and his wife Georgia living in Hoxie, KS and of course Francis's mother Gwen. Later on this trip I saw Howard's brother, Ben's second son Bernard, whom I had contacted in the first place. He and his family is living in Kansas City, KS, and being here, I also met Bernard's children Lori and Randy, Randy's wife Mary and their children. It was just great and now the Genealogy - research really started.

Read here how they made it to AMERICA

The author together with Ben Harwerth