On 28 Aug 1993, Mary Schwemmer Hockenbarger received the following letter from Dr. IgorPleve :"Unfortunately, to give broader genealogical information about your ancestors is not possible atthis time. The church books from the colony of Dreispitz cannot be located. (Untranslated) storieshave not been preserved. I can only say that your ancestors first appear in the colony, Grimm.One of the sons of the first settler, Andreas (born Schwemmer in 1769) married MariaMargartta Otto(born 1779) and moved to live on the estate of the father-in-law, Detlov Otto in Dreispitz. In1797 a daughter, Maria Katharina was born. Unfortunately more information I could notuncover."
In spite of this set back, Mary has discovered a great deal of information on her directline and their siblings. Her father, David Schwemmer (1899-1984) was the son of DavidSchwemmer (1867 - 1956) and Anna Elizabeth Schwemmer (1875 - 1942) David's parents wereAndrew b. 1839 in Dreispitz, and Susie Herbel. And Anna Elizabeth's parents were ChristopherSchwemmer b. 1840 and Mary Sinner. Additional surnames include Oplender, Hetzel, Miller,Gallyardt, Niderhaus, Schick, Miller,Lundgrin, Graf, Erlich, and Wallert. All of these nameshave been entered in our data bank.
The following letter was received on 8 Aug 1994 from Ida Zeppie Schwimmer (bornPopp on 31 May 1932 in Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine and traveled to Germany in 1981.) in response to an item in "Volk auf dem Weg" of Aug/Sep 1994 in "Family Search". Translated by LaurinWilhelm on 17 Aug 1994:
"My grandfather, Gottlieb Schwemmer, from Dreispitz, had three sons: David, born1885 (that is my father), Gottoried, Reinhold, and a daughter, (she died young). I don'tremember her name. From hearsay, my parents, I know, that our next of kin, AltergetSchwemmer emigrated to the USA before 1914.
"My grandfather, Gottlieb, was murdered in prison in 1918. All three of his sons had toflee from Dreispitz in 1929. They procured all exit papers and lived far from the Volga. Theywere afraid that they would be arrested. They had to let all their houses go. They werepersecuted as "kulaks." All of these years we lived in the Ukraine. My father David had taken thename Alexander Popp. Under this name he was arrested in Aug 1941 as "a German" and diedof starvation in prison in May 1942.
"My mother Emma (born Altergot) Popp died in exile in Apr 1944 when I was 12 years old. She is buried in Kazachstan."
Ida Zeppie (Popp)
Letter to Mary Hockenbarger