Distribution of the estate of a former Bernadotte Township widow, Mrs. Barbara Brix, was approved Friday, 2 1/2 years after her death, following a lengthy search for a relative in Germany.

Mrs. Brix, who lived at St. Alexander Home in New Ulm for about a year prior to her death Nov. 6, 1971, left four personal bequests to relatives and friends and $1,000 to the Catholic Church of Visitation at Swan Lake.

She willed the rest of her estate to a nephew, Joseph Hannekahm, son of her brother, Joseph, who she believed lived in Wurttenburg, Germany, or to his heirs if he predeceased her. If he could not be located the residue was to go to the Swan Lake church.

Mrs. Brix was born in Weisensulz, Austria (now Bela,Czechoslovakia) Dec. 7,1886. She married Lawrence Brix in 1926 and the couple came to the United States that same year. After 1934 they farmed in the Bernadotte area and he died in 1940.

After Mrs. Brix died and her will was entered for probate the search for Joseph Hannekahm began.

A letter from Walter Hauser, consul for the Federal Republic of Germany with jurisdiction in Minnesota, and attorney for the German Consulate General in Chicago, was received recently by the court reporting no success in locating the man or his heirs.

Hauser reported he searched for over two years, making inquiries to the German Consulate General in Chicago; the Ministry of Interior of the State of Baden, Wurttemberg,German; the offices of vital statistics at Bela Czechoslovakia and Wittenburg, Germany and five other towns of similar name in Germany and East German; plus a private bank specializing in locating heirs in Germany.

Since the nephew or his heirs could not be located, the residue of $6,136 went to the Swan Lake Catholic Church of Visitation, making the total left to the church by Mrs. Brix $7,136.

New Ulm Daily News