The letter is from a Weilage father to his son. The father writes of family travails (“grandfather has a terrible coughing”... “(Gustav’s) head is not yet healed, but there is hair again growing”) and workaday moments on the family farm (“We slaughtered a pig. So if God lets us stay healthy we’ll have enough to eat.”)

Weilage said Vennemann’s research has provided his family with a wealth of information that includes family tree listings going back to 1797.

He expects to learn more when he meets up with Vennemann later this month in Morton, where Vennemann will be visiting relatives.

He said he’ll also try to get to the bottom of how Vennemann happened to link up with him in the first place.

“How did my name get on her e-mail list? That’s the million dollar question.”