Erna Martha Hedwig Hohenhaus

1899–1978

BIRTH 7 DEZ 1899 • Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland

DEATH 13 AUG 1978 • Berlin, Stadt Berlin, Berlin, Germany

My Grandmother Erna is where my Hohenhaus family begins. She lived in Berlin, Germany when I was a baby and knew her, and died when I was just as young. This I just found out and never knew why I got to know her and today I understand why. I was only 1 Year Old!!

When I started my search in 2000 I sat my dad down and asked him about my family. He said well…My dad Richard Bohme and My Mother was Erna Hohenhaus. He told me that he didn’t know a lot as he was born 20 years after his other siblings and there was no one really to ask. I know that my dad had two sisters

Gerda Scheder ( born Bohme )

Erika Herta Barlow ( Born Bohme )

and that no-one really spoke of the family. My Aunt or Tante Erika I was very close to, she was like a sister and a mother figure to me. You know the kind of woman you could talk about anything with. I thought she was so cool and the only female in the family who truly accepted me for who I was, with all my faults. I dont know why but most of the BOEHME family that I got to know was the same way. She and I would sit and talk about Men, Boys, Sex, Dating and sit on the couch cuddling up to each other watching East Enders, Coronation Street and Home and Away. I always wish I could live with her as I had always wanted a mother like her.

Growing up with my own mother, was kind of like a babysitter. She was never there, just like my father and so as young children we were handed off from household to household and because they were ” close friends ” called Aunt and Uncle even thought they were not related to us at all.

Back to My Story.

My dads second Sister Gerda Bohme married a Scheder and lived in Vienna Austria, and I remember visiting them once. I dont know if anything happened to them at the time, as far as in the family, but when we visited there I did not come to think that we were welcome, however we were ” accepted ” for who we were .. FAMILY .. and in Europe ..even if you dont like them, have problems with them you know you keep it all hush hush, sweep it under the rug and invite them over for coffee and cake and smile like everyone else , not addressing the real issues and push through… I was about 10 maybe younger when I met my Aunt or Tante Gerda and she was a woman of no words. I remember children around me, so Im assuming they were her kids but found out there was only one child she had just like my Tante Erika. I know I always wanted to get to know them, but was kind of afraid to ask about Gerda as my dad was already a man of NO WORDS… swept things under the rug and whenever I talked to him would not answer any questions about the family when I asked him. So, as his daughter and I knew I was not going any further…. then they invented FACEBOOK!! I never used facebook and didndt even know what it was. A co worker of mine in 2006 said, I am on facebook what about you, lets add each other… So we exchanged names and added each other on facebook. and that’s how I got to know alot of my cousins and other family members including Gerda’s Son. We dont talk often but LOVE that because I live in New Jersey and most of my family live in Europe ( my brother and I are the first to be born in the USA )

My dad told me that the Hohenhaus family lived in Berlin and I ( Me his daughter ) traced them back to Poland. My dad told me that he was told that we had a VON HOHENHAUS in the family… and this I am trying to keep researching…