As his classmates headed back to the bus, Evan Rohlfing couldn’t pull himself away from the tombstones.
Squirting Barbasol shaving cream on the stones and running a squeegee over them, the Brownstown Central High School third-year German student was fascinated while reading the words — some in German, some in English, some with dates written in European style, others in American format.
The 24 students in Angie Sibrel’s third-year German class were only at St. John’s Lutheran Sauers Cemetery for about a half-hour Tuesday.
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Rohlfing would have liked to have stayed longer.
“If I had a lot more time, I would probably be able to find some German family that I had on my mother’s side,” the junior said. “I have a very large German background — Rohlfing family from one side and Spurgeon for the other. My father has created a huge family tree going back a long time, and we found extreme roots in Germany.”
The time at the cemetery was well spent and piqued Rohlfing’s interest.
“I think, one, it allows us to see some older German. On the tombstones, it shows a different way of spelling or using words for the same meaning as we have for others,” he said. “It also just allows us if we run into it, possibly see if we have any kind of German root in last name.”
Sibrel said her third-year students have met Jackson County History Center volunteers at local cemeteries with German heritage for about a dozen years. It started with Debbie Holle, Nancy Burge and Margo Brewer wanting to share their passion of history with the students.
“It’s just interesting,” Sibrel said. “It allows them to take what we learned and apply it to the community. They can see German in the community, and a lot of times, these kids came to Sauers in elementary school, and they find it interesting just to be outside of the classroom.”
The cemetery at Sauers is next to the local Lutheran “mother church.”
Holle said others with German tombstones are the German Protestant cemetery near the City Cemetery along North Ewing Street in Seymour, Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Seymour, Emanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Dudleytown, St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery and Lopp Cemetery near Wegan and a cemetery across from Trinity Lutheran Church in Vallonia.
“I want them to understand the emigration of the Germans to Indiana,” Sibrel said. “They know this is a German community, but they see ‘Yes, these were Germans. They used their language when they were here, and the tombstones are still in German.’ It’s just the history. I want them to understand some of the history of Jackson County.”
Once the words are revealed on the tombstones, Sibrel said the students can try to translate from German to English.
“The text is hard to read,” she said. “I have a hard time reading this old script sometimes, so these ladies give us guides on how to do that, and then I try to teach them the words that they are going to see on the tombstones so they are aware of them. Even though they’ve learned all of this, you learn it in the classroom, and then you come out and it isn’t the same format.”
During the annual cemetery trip, Sibrel said she always has a student find a tombstone with their family name.
On Tuesday, one of those students was junior Chelsey Peters. She found a tombstone with the last name of Kamman, which is her grandmother’s maiden name.
“Well, definitely I’m going to talk to her about it tonight,” she said, smiling. “I did not know I had any ancestors here.”
The find will give Peters’ family something to talk about.
“I like talking to my grandparents and figuring out my great-grandma and great-grandparents,” she said. “I’m definitely going to talk to her about this and maybe learn a little bit more. I think everybody needs to know where they originally came from.”
Holle said it was great to hear about Peters’ discovery at the cemetery.
“We would love to see them get interested in tracing their family history, which is my passion,” Holle said.
“It’s my passion, too,” Burge said, noting every February, she teaches basic genealogy to fourth-graders at Brownstown Elementary School and Lutheran Central School.
Holle said she also heard Katherine Benter say she found a tombstone with her last name on it.
“A lot of these kids coming through the Brownstown school system and even Seymour have German heritage,” Holle said. “We’re hoping to also get them interested in their family history in the genealogy end of it to hopefully spark an interest in their family history.”
Burge said the annual cemetery visit also is a good way to reach out to the students and show them how to respect a cemetery.
“This is always an enjoyable afternoon with the kids,” Holle said.