traditions passed down about an ancient family from the Weser and Elbe marshes
Gerhard von Rönn
1993
A foreword by the translator,
Chaplain, Colonel Lowell A. Ronne

As grandson of a German emigrant, I had a strong desire to know the who,  what, where of my forefathers and the culture which surrounded them. Born the  year my grandfather died in a "buggy accident", I was not to learn of my parentage. Due to the international political, social and economic circumstances at the time, many Germany emigrants simply preferred to remain silent about  their past. After World War II, my yearning for the details of my Ronne heritage persisted.

Thanks to my sister-in-law Doris Ronne, and cousin Frances (Hammer) Dole who  had researched so diligently many years, contact was made in 1983 with the von  Ronne family in Germany. It was a miracle.

Doris, about to abandon her search, had decided once more to

blanket north  Germany with her inquiries. The day after a lady in the parish office of  Neustadt, Schleswig-Holstein hadreceived Doris letter, she received a call from Hamburg seeking the same information about grandfather Frederich Christopher Martin von Rönne. The lady gave Marion Heesch Doris address, suggesting she might wish to contact Mrs. Ronne in Sacramento. Thus we found a link with those of our German family. Ensuing Cora and I made several visits to Europe to learn more.

At first , in May 1984 we were able to visit with Marion and her daughter Irene, who with gracious hospitality showed us the home where grandfather was born and points of interest about his childhood. On our visit to Osten, where  grandfather’s forefathers originated, we learned that some one was writing a chronicle of theGerhard von Rönn, author of this work, whom I have never personally met but consider very dear the friendship which we have developed through E-mail, committed many years assembling data about the von Rönne family, often  reorganizing and correcting his findings. For our extended Ronne family, I give him our hearty gratitude for this scholarly link to our past. His learned  endeavor to preserve the data about our forefathers for future generations is  certainly most commendable.

Having received a copy of the chronicle from cousin Marion, I immediately  endeavored to find someone who could and would translate for us. But to no  avail. Nothing to do but use my von Rönne family.