Dr. Joe Wilson

The obituary written by George Boerger first appeared in the October 2018 edition of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society Newsletter. -0- Dr. Joe Wilson made incredible contributions to uncovering our Wendish history, a story he discovered through his Wendish bride, Adele Herbrich. Our paths crossed in 1986 when Weldon Mersiovsky pointed me in Dr. Wilson’s direction […]

Notes on assimilation, discrimination, and self-awareness of Wends in Germany and Texas[1] Joseph B. Wilson The Wends, or Sorbs, of Germany are a Slavic group in what is now southeastern Germany, in the area called Lusatia (Lausitz), around the cities of Bautzen and Cottbus. They were surrounded and infiltrated by the German expansion to the

This article by Dr Joseph Wilson, now retired from Rice University, first appeared as Chapter 8 in Texas Studies in Bilingualism, edited by Glenn G. Gilbert. Unusual German Lexical Items from the Lee-Fayette County Area of Texas[1] In a previous article[2] I gave a general description of the German spoken in the area between La

This article by Joseph Wilson first appeared as part of Chapter 9, From the Other Side of ther Furrow: A Folk-Group Sampler in Texas Country – The Changing Rural Scene.  Edited by G. Lich and Dona Reeves-Marquardt (Texas A&M Press, 1986), pp. 221ff. Introduction Most Europeans coming to urban America managed to pass as Americans

Joseph Wilson’s article from 1977, The German Language in Texas Today from the Rice Institute Pamphlet, can be found on the Rice Fondren Library website at https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/63286. ]]>

Joseph Wilson’s article from 1960, The Texas German of Lee and Fayette Counties, from the Rice Institute Pamphlet, can be found on the Rice Fondren Library website at https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/62831 ]]>

First published in the Texas Wendish Heritage Society Newsletter, Vol II, No. 4 of July-September 1981.  In Texas, as had been the case in Germany previously, the Wends used German as their more official language. Therefore it is not surprising that their grave inscriptions were also in German. Until about nine months ago, I believed

This article was first printed, with Dr Wilson’s permission and consent, for the Krause family history book, Shipwreck to Settlement, published in 1990 by Weldon Mersiovsky. The following descriptions of various aspects of the 1853 emigration were written at the time of the events or shortly thereafter. The source and original language, Wendish or German,

This article was first printed, with Dr Wilson’s permission and consent, for the Krause family History, Shipwreck to Settlement, in 1990. The Wends or Sorbs of Germany are an originally Slavic group in what is now southern East Germany, in the area called Lusatia (Lausitz), around the cities of Bautzen and Cottbus. They were surrounded