Paul Helbig was the name of both my Grandfather and my Uncle. I honor them in this way because there is no one else who could do so. My Uncle, the last of the male Helbig clan of his line died in December 2008 and in doing so, ended the line of Helbigs in America from our distinct family line.
At this site it is my intension to show what life was like for this immigrant family from pre-Nazi Germany who had to put up with all of the anti-Nazi discrimination of the 1930s and 1940s.
Witness the triumphant growth of the family through the 1950s and 1960s while they struggle through both the best and worst of times.
The 1970s showed maturing of third-generation children and their love of a small rancher in Oakland, New Jersey which they will always consider their home. No matter where these young brothers of the family moved, their true home was always in a Helbig household.
Still another generation of family was brought into the fold in the 1980s and 1990s as family reunions of all sorts enabled distant relatives to join in on festivities much like the days of yore.
The new millenium brought sadness as one of the last remaining Helbigs passed just as the century turned. By the end of the decade the family name had stopped with the death of the remaining Helbig bachelor.
But shed not a tear, as the family lives on in this website, destined to be a time capsule for generations to focus on the struggles of one family name in America to succeed.
The ancestors of Helbigs would be proud of how far these four (so far) generations have continued to cherish the family name and the German customs and honor of our heritage.
--Steven Howard Kimball, proud third-generation Helbig in America