While the president of Argentina Alberto Fernandéz recently emphasized his country’s European roots by stating that the Argentinans all came with a boat from Europe, while the Mexicans came from the Indians and the people of Brazil came from the jungle – to the indignation of neighbouring countries [LA Times, June 10, 2021], I thought about it being a good idea to continue the investigations on my ancestors, more precisely the succession of my two granduncles Kurt Gaiser – who must have left Germany before World War II towards Brazil, and Herbert Gaiser, who left to Rhodesia in the 1950s.

Even though the ancestors of my new Argentinian family indeed came with boats from Europe to Argentina, it does not mean that there are no indigenous Argentinians, as well as not all Brazilians came from the jungle.

Fun posts riciculing the racially charged statement of a laughingstock of president started circulating in social media, such as the Russians then would have their origin from the Russian Salad (Y los rusos salieron de las ensaladas?) or vegans came from Las Vegas (los veganos vienen de Las Vegas?).

No wonder that today’s generation of Argentines are leaving the country with this kind of statements of a president, that is doing quite well in ruining a formerly wealthy country. So to say completing the roundtrip of their ancestors and go back to Europe.
Anyway, this blog post is not intended to comment on global politics, but to publish the results of my investigations in finding potential relatives in Brazil, thus proving that also some Brazilians once came with a boat from Europe, for instance the uncle of my father – Kurt Gaiser.

Unfortunately, my father – born 1943 in Tübingen as the son of Ruth Gaiser – never told us much about his childhood (and we can only speculate why) in the post-war time, and there are not many photos that could help my investigations, but one:

He was not born when his uncle Kurt Gaiser (born 1910) left Germany for a better life in Brazil.
And I did not see my grandmother Ruth Gaiser (1913 – 1989) anymore after we stopped living with her in her house (Kreuzstrasse 3, Tuebingen-Lustnau) in 1983.
But the notes on the back side of the photo show in German Kurrent script the name Gaiser, a strikethrough number 89 (the year 1889 my grand-grandmother Käthe Gaiser was born?) and the address of the Gaiser family’s house in Lustnau.
The girl on the photo could be my grandmother Ruth Gaiser, the boy sitting on the fence might be the 3 years older Kurt Gaiser. The photo could have been taken in the early 1920s over the valley of the river Neckar around Tuebingen.

My investigations after my grand-uncle Kurt Gaiser led me to the passenger list of ship Madrid, that left on 23 April 1933 to Sao Francisco do Sul in Brazil.
Kurt Gaiser aged 23 and his wife Wilhelmine Gaiser from Lustnau are on the passenger list, it matches his year of birth in 1910. However, there are many Gaiser families in Lustnau and they are not directly related to us.

Another finding – the registration certificate of foreigners in Brazil – of another Kurt Gaiser born in 1910, but dated in 1957, made me assume that my grand-grandparents are Jacob and Catharina Gaiser, which is not exactly Käthe Gaiser. And that Kurt Johannes Gaiser could be somebody different to the Kurt Gaiser and his Brazilian family I am now looking for. Someone who emigrated from Germany to Brazil much later. But finally the location Curitiba gave the hint to search for my relatives in the south of Brazil, thus finding old photos of Kurt and Wilma (definitely a nick name that could certainly be better pronounced by the locals than Wilhermine) Gaiser in Rolandia: https://historiaderolandia.blogspot.com/2014/05/fotos-antigas-de-rolandia-1933-familia.html