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European Focus Photography
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© Copyright 1997 by James A. Derheim and FEEFHS, all rights reserved
Latest Update: 28 February 1997

Founded 1991

Postal Address:
European Focus Photography
700 North Meadowbrooke Lane
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57110-6216
Telephone (toll free message line 24 hours aday): 1 (800) 401-7802
FAX: (605) 338-2095
eMail address: JDerheim@aol.com

FEEFHS Representative: James A. Derheim, President
eMail address: JDerheim@aol.com

Attached is a very long list- the complete library of all towns and villages from 15 Countries in Europe that I have photographed since starting my business in 1991. The countries include Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg and Austria. You are looking at an immense amount of work!

If your town or village is not on the attached list, it means that it has not been photographed, plain and simple. I do not photograph towns or villages purely "on spec." Every single town and village on this list was specially ordered by a genealogist who wanted to see specific places within that village.

If you have an interest in a town or village that is not on this list, please allow me to write you a special proposal that will tell you exactly what a package on your ancestral town or village would cost. Don't simply wait for your town or village to be photographed for someone else, you could be waiting a long, long time. There are literally thousands of villages in just Germany alone, a country that fits easily into our state of Montana.

The sheer length of this list and the hundreds of towns and villages that are listed here should tell you one thing- Genealogists place a great deal of trust and faith in me and my highly professional service. This list represents more than 400 individual genealogists, who like you, have always wondered what their ancestral village or town looks like.

Personal Background Before you look through this listing, I'd like you to know a bit of background about myself and my unique little company.

I've been photographing ancestral towns and villages in Germany and 21 other European countries since 1991. I started this unique enterprise while living in Germany, I was a photographer for the European Stars and Stripes newspaper from 1989-1994. I lived in Darmstadt, Hessen. I learned to speak German fluently during my five years as a resident of Deutschland.

Because what used to be a hobby for me soon was too big to control, while still maintaining a fulltime job with the newspaper, I made the very easy decision to leave the newspaper in February 1994 and devoted myself full time to this business, attending genealogical conferences all over the United States with my traveling photo display, that shows hundreds of examples of my exceptionally professional photographs.

This is a fulltime job now that occupies every minute of my conscious life. If I'm not actually in Europe taking photographs, I'm here in my office, filing negatives, writing contracts, talking with new clients and old ones, planning for genealogical conferences and events. My mother and father have about given up on me ever settling down with a wife and kids! This would be as foreign an idea to me as living on Mars. (Although I hear there may be company up there for us Earthlings!)

I strive to capture the essence, the flavor of your ancestral town or village. Because the reality of the situation is that 75% of my clients will never get the opportunity to see their ancestral location in Europe with their own eyes, I provide what many of my more than 400 past clients say is the "Next Best Thing to Going There." These aren't my words, these are
theirs.

Many of my clients are reachable via electronic mail, I encourage you to ask for a couple of references and I will gladly pass on a couple of e-mail addresses so that you can contact a recent client of mine, to get their impressions on my very professional, personal service.

Attached here is the actual comments made by a client of mine, Louise Rokos, after she received her package on five of her ancestral villages in Germany this winter:

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"You know, Jim, that I agonized long and hard about whether it was all right to spend my husband's hard-earned money on something that was meaningful only to me. We had also hoped that one day we would be able to visit Europe ourselves, although I knew that we could never hope to have any photos of your quality.

The result of all my deliberation was the realization that with my husband's retirement on the horizon our chances of a European vacation were getting slimmer every day. And, of course, we would soon be grandparents and I wanted to leave a meaningful legacy for them.

So Jim, I made one of the best decisions of my life. I can't thank you enough for giving me the gift of a piece of my heritage."

Regards,

Louise

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Should you not find your town or village on this list, please contact me for a written estimate, presented to you electronically with absolutely no obligation, for a package that will truly give you the feelings that Louise Rokos has described above. With all new packages produced in 1997 and beyond comes a detailed map of your town or village, plus detailed information about the atmosphere of the place, my personal observations, and my written "Diary" of everything that happened to me, everything I saw and experienced while walking through your town.

I also gather detailed area maps, and will even shop for a history book about your town or village if you desire. Many towns and villages, even the very small ones, have complete history books that have been written about them. These books can oftentimes include detailed lists of people who left the village to come to America, a real bonus for the genealogist who is looking for published confirmation of their ancestry in a certain town or area in Germany.

When you consider the very high cost of a roundtrip plane ticket, the high cost of transportation in Europe (gasoline is US$5 per gallon) my package prices are very, very reasonable, and set artificially low to encourage a high number of customers to take the plunge and order the ultimate addition to their genealogical materials.

After all, you can read about places, you can collect paperwork until your fingers go numb, but what does it all look like? What does the landscape look like? What does the church where your ancestors were baptised look like?

These questions can only be answered with the help of a conscientious, highly professional photographer who has the genealogist's specific needs always in mind. After all, genealogists are the entire foundation of my business. I wouldn't be succeeding if I weren't absolutely satisfying my clients. More than 25% of my 115 clients in 1996 were direct referrals from previous clients.

In 1996, I spent from July 17 - November 15 working in 12 countries throughout Europe. I was as far north as Lillehammer, Norway and as far south as Catanzaro, Italy. I photographed more than 221 specific towns, villages and special buildings for my clients. Why one customer - all she wanted was a selection of photographs on a certain crossroads in Kilkenny County, Ireland, where her grandfather met her grandmother!

I am strictly a one man operation, although I have an excellent photographer and dear friend who does some sales events for me in the southeast region of the U.S. This is not strictly a "File Photo" operation that I run, in fact, selling photographs from my extensive archives in 1996 accounted for less than 2% of my overall business.

The reasons are simple- every genealogist has particular needs and desires. Every person's genealogy is distinctly different than the next person's, even if by chance they both have originated from the same town or village. A general photograph of the Evangelical Church in a town in Germany may satisfy one person, but for the next, the overwhelming question is "What does it look like inside?" "My Grandfather's headstone is supposed to be leaning against a wall inside that church, I need to have a photo of that stone!"

No job is too large or too small.

My 1997 schedule looks like this:

March 19 - April 3: Working in Germany and Italy

April 18 - 27: Attending two genealogical conferences in California: -- Speaking at the Pasadena Jamboree on April 19 & 20 -- Exhibiting at the San Francisco Conference on April 25 & 26

May 6 - 11: Exhibiting at the NGS Conference in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

May 19 - July 11: Photographing specific towns in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France.

August 20-30: Moving my office and home to Salt Lake City, Utah where I will open a gallery downtown, within walking distance of the LDS Library, in 1999

Sept 3 - 6: Exhibiting at the FGS Conference in Dallas, Texas.

Sept 12- Nov 11: Photographing specific towns and villages in Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

I'd very much like you to be part of my 1997 schedule. Please look over the attached materials, talk it over with family members who may also be interested in supporting your genealogical endeavors, and then let me know what your thoughts are. Please, don't make a snap decision based on price alone! I strongly encourage you to discuss your feelings with me, take advantage of my generous offer to put you in touch with former clients, and carefully consider the wonderful opportunity that has been opened for you today. All no-obligation photographic package proposals are good for at least a full year, that means that your package price is "locked in," so that you can budget appropriately.

Thanks for your time in reading this lengthy message. I wanted you to completely understand the tremendous opportunity being opened up for you today. A color brochure showing examples of my work and full prices for custom photographic packages can be sent to you if you provide your mailing address.

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