As far back as Claire Gebben can remember, her grandmother wrote letters
to the "relatives in Freinsheim," relatives living in a rural
wine-making town in Germany. After her grandmother died, Claire's father
and family kept the tradition alive, writing letters and emails, and
also visiting the relatives in person. Then in 2008, when Claire's
relative Angela Weber travels from Germany to visit her in the Pacific
Northwest, Angela brings along a surprise--over a dozen 19th-century
letters found in an attic in Freinsheim written by their common
ancestors.
As the two set out to translate the Old German Script, Claire and Angela
become captivated by the stories, and the immigrants' impressions of the
New World. That same fall, Claire enters a Master of Fine Arts in
Creative Writing program and chooses to write about the people of the
letters for her graduate thesis. Her decision sparks a journey both
challenging and inspiring, a research adventure including four days of
intensive blacksmithing and a month-long stay in the German
Rhineland-Palatinate.
Even as Claire wrestles to bring her ancestors to life on the page, she
suffers through loss in her own life and finds strength through new
family connections. Via 19th-century correspondence, 21st-century
emails, and present-day relationships and encounters, How We Survive
Here: Families Across Time weaves together a story of how we must
strive to survive, amid experiences past and present, and within the
broader sweep of history.
How We Survive Here includes over two dozen authentic 19th-century
letters written by German immigrant blacksmiths and wagon-makers to
Cleveland, Ohio.
