Weldon’s Wendish Works

The Diary of Spruce McCoy Baird is held in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. The transcription of the diary was purchased from the Library in 2015. it is valuable to Wendish researchers in that it mentions Serbin and the conditions in the United States in the immediate years following the Civil […]

This document was created by James Woodrick. It was transmitted to Weldon Mersiovsky on May 8, 2015, with permission to post on the Wendish Research Exchange website. The author would appreciate attribution for any use of the information in this document.  As you read this article, keep in mind that its importance to the Texas

As the German communities moved from speaking German to speaking English, short plays were written to inject some humor into the situation. These short plays were acted out in schools, youth groups and churches. A popular play at that time was a dialogue between two farmers, one a German and the other American, about a

Using the Portal to Texas history I searched for every newspaper between 1855 and 1920, also 1936 that used the terms Wendish or Serbin and put them into a Word document. Serbin in the News     Weekly Democratic Statesman. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 7, 1871 Hon. John Hancock

Here is how the story begins: On March 3, 1995 Kenneth (K.W.) Mickan asked Weldon Mersiovsky if he would help him identify the date and place of death of Michael Mickan, the immigrant ancestor of the Mickan clan. He had given his son Michael a copy of the “1965 Mickan Album.” On the first page,

The story that you are about to read was gleaned from facts that were carried to the grave by all who lived it. It is pieced together from numerous records and how we interpreted them. Before we started putting it all together all we knew was that Adolf Mersiovsky was born in Hochkirch, Germany and came

An explanation by Weldon Mersiovsky. Texas Wends, especially those who trace their families back to Prussia, should consult Dr. Georg Alpermann’s book, Höfe und Bauern in Klitten (Homes and Farms In Klitten) for possible information about their own family. It identifies homes and farms in the villages of Klitten, Jahmen, Dürrbach, Kringelsdorf, Ölsa, Kaschel, Thomaswalde,

Many people have asked me why I am involved in the Texas Wendish Heritage Society because they think that my name is not Wendish. They are correct. Mersiovsky is not a Wendish name. It is a Bohemian name, an old Bohemian name. My ancestors lived in the Kingdom of Bohemia since Miros built a farmhouse

When St Peter Lutheran Church in Serbin combined with St Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin in 1914 all of the church records of St Peter were burned except for the “Official Acts” meaning baptisms, marriages, death and confirmations. All of these “Official Acts” survived except for the confirmations. Of the confirmations, we have years 1887-1913.

This document was found in the papers of Arthur C. Repp, located in the archives of Concordia Historical Institute located on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri. Rev Repp collected this document and others while researching the articles he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s for the Quarterly publication of the