Yesterday was not a good day for a variety of reasons and tonight as I sat at the computer I thought I need some laughs! So I went to Youtube with the intent of finding a funny video and when I got there I got distracted – big surprise there! . Because I found one of my first drafts of a video, I was making for my cousin Marti’s 60th birthday party. In the video I used a variety of pictures Marti at various ages along with photos of my father and his brothers Arthur, (Marti’s father) and Kenny. I’m in several of the pictures with Marti. I used The Strawbs “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” featuring the vocals of Sandy Denny. when I got done this draft my wife thought it was a little too depressing so I changed the final version. If I ever find that I’ll post it but for now here’s the first go round and by the way I still need a laugh!! Now maybe even more!!
The photos at the beginning of the video our of our grandparents and a couple of our great grandparents on both the Karn and the Meyer sides. Here they are with captions explaining who they are…..
 Maternal great-grandfather Herman Meyer born in Germany |
 Maternal great-grandmother Helene Wendel Meyer born in Germany |
 Pauline Hechler Karn my paternal great-grandmother born in Switzerland. |
 Grandparents – Edward Karn and Charlotte Meyer Karn |
Herman Meyer was born in Koningswalde, Saxony, Germany in 1871 and was a member of the King’s guard before he married Helene. He came to the US in 1911 a year before the rest of the family made the trip in September of 1912. In the US he was a nurseryman and worked at Dreer’s Nursery. As part of the work he took care of the landscaping at the Zurbrugg house in Delanco, NJ, which is where he is standing in the picture.
Helene Wendel Meyer was I believe born in Dresden, Germany in 1880. She had two sisters Frieda, and Elsie and a brother Moritz. Both Frieda and Elsie came to the US, Frieda married Hugo Doelling and lived in Philly and Delanco, while Elsie married Curtis Schrier and eventually settled in the Bethlehem, PA, area. Herman and Helene had three children daughters Irmmagard and Charlotte and a son Albert.
Pauline Hechler Karn (Grissie) was born in Switzerland and came to the US in the 1880s with her parents Daniel and Suzanne Hechler and her brother Gustav. Pauline married Henry Karn and they had five children, Emma, Anna, Charles, Harry, and my grandfather Edward. They lived in Delran and Moorestown.
Edward H. Karn Sr. married Charlotte Meyer. Edward farmed on Creek Road in Delran up until 1939 when they left the farm. After that he farmed in Willingboro until he had a series of heart attacks. Edward and Charlotte had three sons my father Edward H Karn, Jr was the oldest, followed by Arthur and then Kenny…….the video was made for Marti the oldest daughter of Arthur and Pauline(Polly) Karn. Their youngest daughter is Arlene. Both Marti and Arlene live in South Carolina.
All this is part of my know your past so let’s see we are a large part German on both the Meyer and Karn side (Henry was born in Germany too), with a bit of Swiss thrown in. Maybe that’s why I’m partial to those German prog rock bands????? I know that my father’s first cousin Eleanor, daughter of Irma, always was very proud of her German heritage and always belonged to German-American clubs!!
Here is the video…..sorry about the title page, hope you like it!! And if anyone from Konigswalde or Dresden reads this and know anything about my ancestor’s please let me know!!!
