![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sarbach-Images-PDF-marked-meyerleonsarbach.jpg\")
<\/a>Grandfather Meyer Leon Sarbach, c. 1905<\/p><\/div>\n
Why I Got Started<\/b><\/h3>\n
In my middle years my curiosity got the best of me. Facts started coming to the surface that suggested I go further to figure out just how some of these fading images and memories fit together. Since this curiosity was before the advent of online genealogy, my research methods were derived from necessity. At the time, I was not interested in genealogy per se but simply to discover facts related to my father.<\/p>\n
What I Knew<\/b><\/h3>\n
Born in Ohio, I was raised Protestant. My two sisters and I were baptized Methodist and, growing up, never wondered why our world was anything else. Later, as an adult, I converted to Catholicism. We are in our 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s now and, of course, our parents have passed. They grew up during the depression in Nebraska and my Dad\u2019s prime professional life as a research chemist was during the Second World War years. Genealogy was of high visibility in Mom\u2019s family. The Daughters of The American Revolution (DAR) credential collections were vast. But there was nothing for my Dad\u2019s side of the family. A few disconnected names were all I had. We did have family Bibles with dutiful notations of names and events. Dad wrote many useful notes and I had letters from paternal uncles outlining family linkages, but nothing regarding religion.<\/p>\n
Starts to Become Clear<\/b><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sarbach-Images-PDF-marked-6-300x240.jpg\")
<\/a>Douglas Sarbach visiting Imsbach, Germany, 2009<\/p><\/div>\n
When I learned that Dad\u2019s father, Meyer Leon Sarbach, spent his final days in a Masonic (also Jewish) home in Topeka, Kansas, and was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas, I began to wonder. I especially wondered why our family was Methodist.<\/p>\n
My surname, Sarbach, is not common in the USA. I knew that most of the Sarbachs in this country were either rooted in Switzerland or in southern Germany and not related one to the other\u2014the Swiss were typically Catholic or Protestant and the Germans were not. We did know if we had German or Swiss background. I had learned from my Dad that our surname used to have a double \u201ca \u201c\u2014Saarbach\u2014one of which was dropped shortly after our ancestors arrived in the new land. I then learned that the Sarbachs came to America from Imsbach in Bavaria about 1851.<\/p>\n
Research Breakthrough<\/b><\/h3>\n
I decided the mystery of my Dad\u2019s heritage had to have a simple answer. Since there were relatively few Sarbachs in the US, I simply wrote all the Sarbachs listed in the online white pages a \u201chard copy\u201d letter. The letter introduced myself and what few family facts\u2014events, names, and relationships\u2014I had. I asked that if they had any corresponding family facts, I would piece them together with mine and follow up with them. I sent in excess of 100 letters with self-addressed stamped envelopes. The kind and thoughtful responses started rolling in. All but one of the responses had no useful information.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sarbach-Images-PDF-marked-3-196x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Great-Grandfather Victor Saarbach, c. 1855<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sarbach-Images-PDF-marked-4-196x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Great-Grandmother Rosa Lehman, c. 1855<\/p><\/div>\n
The response I received from Jack Honig said \u201cHi Doug, I\u2019m your 2nd cousin and you are Jewish.\u201d He proceeded to fill out my family with names, photos, extended family and a variety of data only he could have known. I now knew that I had a deceased Jewish Grandfather and a number of other Jewish family members only Jack could have known about. Jack\u2019s own story was a blockbuster of intrigue and escape from the Nazi\u2019s in the late 1930s\u2014he lost close family members in the Holocaust\u2014and he was my cousin!! I\u2019ll never forget my friend, Jack and his wife, Molly. I had the honor of sharing Seder with Jack and his family one year.<\/p>\n
In 2014 I asked a tour guide in Prague what was the Nazi criteria for being labeled a Jew. He said, \u201c\u2026having one grandparent who was Jewish.\u201d My Dad\u2019s father was Jewish, a child of Jewish German immigrants. Therefore, my sisters and I would have been considered Jewish by the Nazis. So why did my Dad not speak to his Jewishness and why did my Protestant mother go along with the story? Why did no one in Ohio suspect our Jewishness whereas those in Nebraska and Kansas all knew?<\/p>\n
Putting it Together<\/b><\/h3>\n
Dad was a scientist and Mom, Ruth Lucile Wimberly, was a child of a respected English professor at the University of Nebraska. Both were schooled in higher education. They were informed of world events of the 1930s and 40s. Dad was involved in developing synthetic rubber so that the Japanese could not hold the world hostage for the lack of natural rubber\u2014he succeeded. I believe that Dad and his scientist circle of friends and co-workers feared for the outcome of the War in Germany and the destiny of their children. Dad had a special concern. Indeed, our nation was fighting for its life and I think Dad was protecting his family from possible internment or worse.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Douglas Sarbach visiting Imsbach, Germany, 2009<\/p><\/div>\n
When I learned that Dad\u2019s father, Meyer Leon Sarbach, spent his final days in a Masonic (also Jewish) home in Topeka, Kansas, and was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas, I began to wonder. I especially wondered why our family was Methodist.<\/p>\n
My surname, Sarbach, is not common in the USA. I knew that most of the Sarbachs in this country were either rooted in Switzerland or in southern Germany and not related one to the other\u2014the Swiss were typically Catholic or Protestant and the Germans were not. We did know if we had German or Swiss background. I had learned from my Dad that our surname used to have a double \u201ca \u201c\u2014Saarbach\u2014one of which was dropped shortly after our ancestors arrived in the new land. I then learned that the Sarbachs came to America from Imsbach in Bavaria about 1851.<\/p>\n
Research Breakthrough<\/b><\/h3>\n
I decided the mystery of my Dad\u2019s heritage had to have a simple answer. Since there were relatively few Sarbachs in the US, I simply wrote all the Sarbachs listed in the online white pages a \u201chard copy\u201d letter. The letter introduced myself and what few family facts\u2014events, names, and relationships\u2014I had. I asked that if they had any corresponding family facts, I would piece them together with mine and follow up with them. I sent in excess of 100 letters with self-addressed stamped envelopes. The kind and thoughtful responses started rolling in. All but one of the responses had no useful information.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Great-Grandfather Victor Saarbach, c. 1855<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Great-Grandmother Rosa Lehman, c. 1855<\/p><\/div>\n
The response I received from Jack Honig said \u201cHi Doug, I\u2019m your 2nd cousin and you are Jewish.\u201d He proceeded to fill out my family with names, photos, extended family and a variety of data only he could have known. I now knew that I had a deceased Jewish Grandfather and a number of other Jewish family members only Jack could have known about. Jack\u2019s own story was a blockbuster of intrigue and escape from the Nazi\u2019s in the late 1930s\u2014he lost close family members in the Holocaust\u2014and he was my cousin!! I\u2019ll never forget my friend, Jack and his wife, Molly. I had the honor of sharing Seder with Jack and his family one year.<\/p>\n
In 2014 I asked a tour guide in Prague what was the Nazi criteria for being labeled a Jew. He said, \u201c\u2026having one grandparent who was Jewish.\u201d My Dad\u2019s father was Jewish, a child of Jewish German immigrants. Therefore, my sisters and I would have been considered Jewish by the Nazis. So why did my Dad not speak to his Jewishness and why did my Protestant mother go along with the story? Why did no one in Ohio suspect our Jewishness whereas those in Nebraska and Kansas all knew?<\/p>\n
Putting it Together<\/b><\/h3>\n
Dad was a scientist and Mom, Ruth Lucile Wimberly, was a child of a respected English professor at the University of Nebraska. Both were schooled in higher education. They were informed of world events of the 1930s and 40s. Dad was involved in developing synthetic rubber so that the Japanese could not hold the world hostage for the lack of natural rubber\u2014he succeeded. I believe that Dad and his scientist circle of friends and co-workers feared for the outcome of the War in Germany and the destiny of their children. Dad had a special concern. Indeed, our nation was fighting for its life and I think Dad was protecting his family from possible internment or worse.<\/p>\n