Altenkrempe Basilica

In addition to the church in Süsel, we visited the Basilica in Altenkrempe where my great grandmother, Emma Bertha Anna Sell, was baptized.   Emma was born 14 June 1885 in Blackfoot, Idaho.  She and her brother traveled to Germany with their mother, Bertha Friederike Jacobine Sick Sell and lived there for some time before returning to Idaho.  My mother remembers being told by her grandmother that she had to re-learn English when they came back to the United States.

Family photograph

Baptism entry for Emma Bertha Anna Sell and her brother, Otto Heinrich Carl Sell.

Picture this – the day before my sister and I were to head off to Germany with our 79-almost-80 year-old mother, the whole trip is in jeopardy.  Mom hit her arm and has developed a huge bruise which goes all the way down to her fingertips.    As a result, her white cell count is elevated, but she is bound and determined to go no matter what – this is the trip of a lifetime and she’s not going to let this stop her.  Yes, we had trip insurance, but none of us wanted to cancel.  We agreed to visit the hospital and if she could get the ok to travel, we were going.   When the doctor said that he had seen bruises like that many times and that he “wouldn’t let that stop him from going to Germany,” the trip was on!  We left the next day for our great adventure.

Our main goal was to visit our ancestors’ villages and get in some sightseeing along the way.  One of the first churches that we visited was St. Laurentius Church in Süsel, Schleswig-Holstein.  

My 6^th Great-Grandfather, Timm Sick and his wife, Marie Lisbet Schumacher, were married here on 11 May 1754.  

Many Sick family members were baptized and married in this beautiful little parish church.  It was an incredible feeling to be in the same spot where they once stood.