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Marvin Bernard Bottke was born January 13, 1943 in Faribault, Minnesota. His father was Edward Lawrence Bottke and his mother was Elsie Schmidtke. Edward Lawrence Bottke was born June 17, 1908 in Morristown, Minnesota, and his father was Richard Bottke who was born in Pommern, Germany on September 21, 1880 to Wilhelm and Wilhelmina Bottke. Marvin lives with his wife, Carole, in Bedford, Texas.
1. When did you start the Bottke Family Newsletter? The first issue was published in July of 1996. This was 103 years and five generations after Wilhelm and his wife Wilhelmina came to America from Pommerania, which was then in the far eastern zone of Prussia, (Old Germany) out of Kreiss (County of) Rummelsberg. The very first newsletter announced a “Holiday Reunion Extravaganza” in Branson, Missouri which was going to be held Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1997—about 16 months later.
The first Bottke Family Reunion in Branson, Missouri - November 1997 2. Why did you start the Bottke Family Newsletter? I began developing a passion for the idea as early as 1982 after taking my very first trip to Germany. I had an awakening to something during that trip that shed a totally different light on a preconceived notion that I'd had since childhood. It was about cooking and mealtime. I recall as a child seeing and smelling smoke and odor from very hot oil or grease in the frying pan when my mother was preparing food. I concluded this was because my mother was always in a hurry and she wanted really hot grease for frying things because it would get done quicker. I always saw my mother as someone who hurried through things, with six children; she always had so very much to do.
I also observed other things that inspired me to pay closer attention to my family roots, such as home made bread, like my mother made. Then, as I traveled in Northern Germany I saw farm land and trees that resembled the area from where I grew up in America. “Perhaps this is why our great-grandfather settled where he did. Perhaps it was because Minnesota resembled his home area so much.”
About 1985 my daughter Tracy started talking about doing some genealogy research and wanted to develop a family tree. She also favored me by writing a short book about Max Adams and his years of living in America. (That book is mentioned every time we visit Max's son in Germany to this very day.) As Tracy began the project of doing genealogy research, I decided that I would compliment the genealogy book with a Bottke Newsletter. This would provide history, humor, current news, and announcements about anyone connected to the Bottke name, even in a very loose way, even if they were not in our immediate family tree. I was hoping it would touch as many Bottke's as possible.
In a time and age when things have become so transient—when the family unit is said to be disintegrating—I feel good that I’ve played a small part in helping to keep the history of our family alive. Together we are all making a difference for the young people who will follow in our footsteps. Young people who can be proud to know the roots of their ancestors—who will be strengthened by knowing whose blood flows through their veins. It is an honor and a privilege to write each and every Bottke Family Newsletter and I hope and pray family members will continue to send their information to whoever holds this post long after I’m gone. It’s not about me—it’s about family. It’s about being blessed by God above to be a part of a family whose history is so varied and rich, and it’s up to all of us to keep that history, and those memories alive.
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Marvin Bottke
Then, during our first trip to Germany, in Northern Germany, I saw people cook with very hot and smoking grease. Not once, not twice, but often. “Oh, that's why my mother cooked with hot smoking grease,” I thought. It wasn’t because she was in a hurry—it was because that was simply how it was done in the old country, and she had learned that from her mother.
And I started to think that it might be nice if the younger generations could learn more about their forefathers. I realized there are a great many families who do genealogy tracing and make charts about who was born and when they died and who their children were. But those kinds of charts tell us nothing about the people. Sure, that type of ancestral tracing is important to know—vital even—but I was more interested in “what made people tick?” I wanted to know why they came to America, what was it like for them once they arrived, what events of life formed their lifestyle changes, and how did they adjust? I had a great many questions. I began asking questions and writing letters and interviewing relatives. 
And as of this date, it has. We receive e-mail from all over the world from people who are related to or who carry the Bottke name. There aren’t many Bottke's in America, so when we do meet another Bottke it’s only natural to feel like we may be related, even if we don't know how. However, it seems that most of the Bottke’s in America can trace their lineage back to the same place in Pommerania.