#Unfortunately WW1/WW2 meant that deitsch pretty much died out everywhere except Amish/mennonite communities

[alatariel-galadriel]

Woe, 1839 German bible uncovered in family attic be upon ye!

included: names/birthdays from 1892-1985, a pressed flower, a printed condolence card (1913)

not included: several locks of hair, a handmade condolence card (march 1842), 5 deitsch marriage certificates (1851-1935) lots of notes written in deitsch, and the chemise it was wrapped in

#anyways we found all this clearing out my great-great aunt’s house after her passing 6 years ago #There was a photo album too!! I think the earliest one was dated 1871 but don’t quote me on it #I might post photos of it next time I visit my hometown because it’s gorgeous #the benefit of your family never leaving 1 very small county is that there ends up being a lot of history #also it’s really fascinating because my family spoke deitsch in the home up through the forties so a lot of the notes #Written in are minor translations (deitsch is linguistically distinct but Very similar to german) #All of my great-relatives (and the handful of great-greats that I met) could/can still speak a little #Unfortunately WW1/WW2 meant that deitsch pretty much died out everywhere except Amish/mennonite communities #My grandparents still know a couple words but haven’t really spoken it since they were kids #HOWEVER I have learned that some of my/my family’s weird grammar (which I discovered was weird very late in life) is a holdover from deitsc #This has been your obscure linguistics infodump of the day thanks for listening #Whispers from the ally