A few days ago the local classical music radio announcer mentioned something that caught my ear: Zimmermann's Café! In the early 1700's one Gottfried Zimmermann owned a coffeehouse on St. Catherine's Street in Leipzig, where on Friday evenings musicians would gather, talk, and play. The Collegium Musicum that met there was a club consisting of a few dozen university students. Johnann Sebastian Bach was the director of the group for about a decade beginning in 1729 and composed some pieces for the members to perform. Zimmermann bought several instruments for poor musicians to use.

A few decades ago a great-uncle of mine caught the genealogical bug and researched the background of "Three Zimmermann Brothers", as he called the photocopied book that resulted. The brothers moved to Texas in the late 1800's from Leipzig to become farmers. One of them was a great-grandfather of mine. They had ancestors who reputedly were bakers. Could one have been the same Gottfried? Small world! My copy of the family-tree booklet is lost around the house somewhere, along with most of the missing matter in the universe. Further investigation needed ...

(cf. [1] and [2] ...) - ^z - 2009-01-22

early 1700s – late 1800s – grandsons perhaps. The world is a lot smaller than one thinks, and it's fun to stumble across possible connections. Bo