Donnerstag, 11. Juli 2013
As mentioned before, there were a lot of close relatives living in North California in those days. George must have had contact to most of them.
Most importantly, his two sisters, Magdalene Suter (maiden name Backenköhler) and Anna Backenköhler, who returned to Germany in 1906.
Magdalene stayed in San Francisco, where she met her later husband, Frank M. Suter in the aftermaths of the Earth Quake in Golden Gate Park. Frank was essentially older than Magdalene. The two of them had two sons, Frank A. and Robert W.
Frank A. Suter married his wife Mary during World War 2; they had six children. In the summer of 1975 visited his German relatives in Celle and Zetel. Returning to Germany for a second visit, he died at his arrival at Frankfurt Airport due to a surprising heart attack. Frank and Mary lived in Redwood City near San Francisco.
Robert W. Suter never got married. He spent the last years of his life living with famous opera singer Emilie Blankenburg on 3675 Jackson Street, which is a quite wealthy neighbourhood of San Francisco.
Emilie Blankenburg owned that house since the 1930’s.


George lived for some years at Brüggemann’s Farm. His cousin, Frederick Brüggemann, has two daughters, who still live in the San Francisco area. We visited one daughter, Jane, on our trip in 2011. She and her sister owned the family farm in Bennett Valley until about twenty years ago. They decided to sell the property because of its location and since it was of no use for them.
And finally, there were two of his aunts who also emigrated to California: Sophie Jehle and Marie Maass, who George was living with for quite a while.

Famous German-American opera singer Emilie Blanckenburg