Over the weekend I visited The House of the Lord with a fist full of names. These were names of deceased relatives in my family tree. Like many Asian cultures I belong to a faith who seek to remember and honor the dead. My uncle Frannie who served under General Patton in WWII came home with tails of seeing a shipbuilding factory in Germany with our family name upon it. He sparked an interest in me at a early age to discover our family roots. This spark laid dormant for many years until I joined the Mormon church in 1970. Their religious teaching inspire a respect for the dead and a gathering of records so they are not forgotten and can be remembered and prayed for. In their Temples the living remember the dead blessing them with all the blessings of the gospel tying families together. So in the 70s I began the seeking and gathering of records so I could help bless and seal my ancestors together in The House of the Lord. I began with contacting relatives, writing county seats and visiting the main New York City Library searching the old street directories and censuses to find those missing links. My Irish and German ancestors arrived in NYC in the mid 1800s and spread out to Long Island and Connecticut. My dad was born in Queens to Irish/German parents(mom Irish & father German). My mom was born in Bridgeport Connecticut to Irish/German parents(mom German & father Irish). I was born in Manhattan and am Irish/German with DNA results stating I'm 51% Irish, 48% German/ Nordic & 1% Eastern European. So what's in a name? My name is Robert Charles Luerssen. Robert was my parents choice no family connection that I know of. They just liked the flow of the name. Charles comes from my mother's German grandfather Charles Rippe a wealth Westport, Ct. farmer. Luerssen my father's last name going back to Germany. I quickly reached a dead end to the Luerssen tree in the 70s only hearing they had come from Breman Germany, but never finding the connecting records to my European cousins. However, I connected back to my great great grandfather Anton Luerssen who was born in Germany, but settled in NYC around 1850. Here is this line: Anton (2ggf) Alfred (ggf) Frank(gf) Edward(f) & me Robert better know as Charlie. The blessed day of the internet and digital recording of records opened the way for me to connect to my German ancestors. I found Anton(18) as member of the crew sailing on the Von Frederick from Breman Germany to NYC in 1848. On the ship's log it list his birthday and city of origin Blexen Germany. From that information I was able to trace my family lines back to 1600 to that area on the North Sea where they made their living as sailors, fishermen, shipbuilders and farmers. Over the years I have taken their names into the Temples to honor and bless them. The wonder of the internet continues to retrieve names of those who have passed on to whom I'm connected. Call it fate or coincidence this weekend I took a name of a deceased relative to the Temple that no one in my immediate family ever knew in this life. However, within the names are the names of two of my grandsons (Xavier & Anton), my grandfather(Francis) and the middle name(Charles) of my son and myself. So it's strange what is in a name.
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My distant cousins in Germany build the largest luxury yachts in the world today.
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The Lord of Heaven has given us names so that he may bind us together in love in his Temples here on earth that we might be together with him in Heaven. Thus teaches the scriptures...
Matthew 16:
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Malachi 4:
5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
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