As a retired Boeing software developer accustomed to fast project development technology in a state-of-the-art professional world, and a developer of Artificial Intelligence software, familial issues presented challenges I gladly accepted. With siblings spread out up and down the west coast, contact with them occurred infrequently and with some conflict. Divorce contributed to my conflicts but a loving and sound partner brought me through the difficulties even though life often got in the way of a an even path to happiness.
I retired with the motivation and desire to document my findings about my family's origins. With a mother who died at an early age and a father whose social needs were met in the local pubs, and several substitute parents along the path of his early childhood, the end results could have been tragic. But with care and guidance from these families, and supporting brothers, and a sister who though she lived in a distant state, gave me guidance and support. Though my adventurous spirit often misguided me, the end result turned out better than one could expect. I take you, the reader, through the conflict with my father, dwells on my father's motivation, and eventually come to a conclusion about my father's motivation.]
In the early days of my Genealogical Research, before AI-based machine translators and while taking Deutsche classes, I looked for a work to translate. A distant relative from German sent me Albert Burkhardt’s re-publication of Johann Jacob Grumbke’s publication of his letters,‘Streifzuge durch das Rügenland,’ which described the conditions and environment in the Island of Rügen, my ancestral homeland, during the time of our ancestors. Certainly, this would be a book that would hold my interest. Without this underlying motivation, to determine how our ancestors lived, it is unlikely that I would have completed a work of this magnitude. After two years, I had a translation. Three years later, it met my standards as an acceptable translation. May you enjoy reading it as much as I had doing the translation.
Art Strohmeier