Vienop, or is it Vinup? - Part 1

As a child, my Vienop side of the family would get together for family reunions fairly regularly.  Sometimes the reunion would be just the Borchers and Reidenbach cousins but other times, there would be more Vienop's included.  The Vienop side of my family has longevity so I have to be careful here about who I mention in the my blog.  I have that rule of privacy for living individuals.  Since I still have quite a few living Vienop Family around, I will try hard to refrain from indicating their names here.

Many of my Vienop relatives don't have the Vienop last name because of marriages.  So has the Vienop name completely disappeared?  I'm not sure.  The people related to the line have not.  There are still plenty of us, let me tell you.  I will admit though that if there are researchers out there trying to locate us, it might be tough at times because of the seemingly disappearing Vienop surname.  I can assure you that name will never be forgotten in my family.  And so I "write it down" to make sure that we don't forget.

I have written a little about my Vienop Family including my great-grandma (Mary Vienop Borchers) who I knew very well.  I posted about her starting with this post in October 2010: Maria Luise Katharine Vienop - Mary Borchers.  I have since gathered little new information but have been thinking about all that I already know.

I do know that my great great grandfather, Henry Vienop, Sr. (a.k.a. John Henry Vienop or Johann Heinrich Vinup) came to the U.S. twice.  He visited here in the early 1870s as I recall.  He then returned to Germany and brought his family back to the U.S.  It seems apparent to me that during his immigration into the U.S. that the spelling of his surname was altered from Vinup to Vienop.  In Germany, it seems important to know and understand this as you probably won't find Vienop's there.  You will, however, find Vinup's.

I find it interesting that even after moving west across the U.S. from Missouri to Nebraska to Napa, California, that Henry Sr. made the trek back to Germany around 1925 for a visit.  He took his daughter, Minnie, with him for that trip.  Minnie Vienop wrote a short couple of pages of what they did on their trip.  It is more of an outline as I recall.

It seems apparent to me that the Vienop's stateside worked to keep in contact with the Vinup's in Germany.  I wonder if World War II changed that.   I also wonder now as I write this if any letters exist.  I am assuming that they would be in the German language if they do. 

To be continued............