On the plane trip to Germany, these words ran through my mind, "Christian and Christina are going home because a little bit of them is in me."  Kathy Ghering Goodman

My Family History did not Encourage a Deeper Look

For many years I hadn't wanted to learn more about my family. My childhood had been marked more by emotional hurt and disappointment than by joy. My inheritance was a vague mistrust of people and a wounded heart. This theme ran through the family I was acquainted with. My grandfather George Ghering echoed that theme in his book, Tragedy, the History of the Thomas M. Ghering Family. Why would I want to know more about this family?

Although I desperately hadn't wanted it the worst happened. In 1989, just a few months after my father died, my divorce was final. I lost the extended family I had acquired through my marriage. Gradually I rebuilt my life and began writing a new future, line by line. I looked out at God's world and once again saw beauty and felt a hope for a future yet uncertain. My pain eventually became a distant memory and I could function as a whole person. I let myself love and slowly trust someone again and in 1994, Ron and I got married. But, I still felt that I had a small family.

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Beginning the Family Connection

While reorganizing my filing cabinet one day, I found the genealogy file that my cousin Linda Harvey Kelley had sent me a couple of years before. A friend gave me a genealogy program and I started entering the data. Linda had sent me a copy of the information originally gathered by Mabel Ghering Granquist, which was widely distributed throughout the family. Mabel was the historian for the annual Ghering Family Reunions in northwestern Pennsylvania for many years. While Mabel's Ghering History, written about 1945, had no sources listed and was not totally correct, it was a great starting place.

The Ghering Family Reunion, 1927, Edinboro, PA
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As an added bonus, Linda had included a family tree of our ancestors from our immigrant ancestors Christian and Christina Link Goehring back to Germany in the 1600's. That information had come from Dee Walter LaBatt, a descendant of Michael Ghering, who lived in Michigan. Dee, who came from a line of farmers, taught farming at a Michigan university. He had paid professional researchers in Salt Lake City who traced the line to Germany.

Linda, a highly-educated, compassionate woman, is an avid letter writer who corresponds with many people all over the world. She has gathered an extremely large circle of friends through her travels as a missionary, teacher, and true servant of God. Through the years she has met some of the older Ghering relatives and has discussed our history with them. A published writer, Linda has written poetry, books, and short stories drawn from her experiences as a missionary in Papua, New Guinea, her deep religious beliefs, and her current job at a school for boys. Linda loves and lives life to the fullest of anyone I know. She is an inspiration.

As I delved deeper into the family history, it not only kept me from dwelling on everyday problems, it introduced me to a family I had never known. I found farmers, lumbermen, teachers, preachers, missionaries, doctors, and oil workerspeople of every sort. I saw some of the factors that influenced their lives. I found that during my grandfather Ghering's generation, they all knew and visited with each other.  Christian and Christina's brothers, nieces, nephews, and children gathered yearly at Ghering reunions. We had gotten so far out of touch that I didn't even know the children of my grandfather's favorite cousins.

I wanted to know more. Why did my immigrant ancestors leave their hometown of Täbingen (Taebingen), in Württemberg, Germany to come to northwestern Pennsylvania in 1843? Why did they settle in Cherrytree Township, Venango County? What did Täbingen look like? Were there still Gherings in Täbingen we were related to? I thought many of those questions would remain unanswered. But, the journalist in me couldn't stop wondering.

In my genealogical research, it seems that things fell into place in a logical order that allowed the next step to happen. Often I didn't know what the next step was until it happened. Was God gently leading me to a destination?

The strangest part of the whole process was the day I answered the phone and heard my ex husband's voice. I tensed, anticipating bad news. But, his words surprised me. He offered me and my husband Ron reduced-rate tickets to Germany to see my middle son, Jared. Where did that come from? I didn't ask why, but was happy to think I would see Jared and his wife Michelle after nearly two years.  And, an extra special bonus—I would get to share a once-in-a-lifetime experience with Jared—a visit to our Ghering ancestors' home town, Taebingen, Germany.

During the long flight to Germany in May 1998, I had plenty of time to contemplate all the factors that had come into play in order for me to be on that plane. Too many serendipitous circumstances had occurred to think all this was simply good luck. Over the last couple of years many things had to fall into place rather neatly to make this trip a reality. And, things in my life never happened neatly. While young, I naively made many mistakes and took a long bumpy route to arrive at an unplanned future.

On the plane trip to Germany, these words ran through my mind, "Christian and Christina are going home because a little bit of them is in me."

See: Going Home to Täbingen for the story of our trip.

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