Thur. Sept. 27
We had an amazing day today, full of adventure. Yesterday we decided that since we were so close to the town that some of my early german ancestors came from we’d stop in and see if we could get some grave photos for my sister. My sister has done the genealogy for that family line.
We stayed in a town nearby and hit the road early to see what we could find. It was easy to see why the brothers who came to america in the early 1700s settled in the area of NY that they did. The landscape could easily be swapped. The villages all nestled sung in the valleys and misty clouds rising from the trees and deep wooded areas must have felt like home to them.
The villages in the area all contain many very old building farms and homes mixed in with some newer construction. It all blends together in a harmonious way. The all surround the larger central city, the main Market Town and hub of commerce, which is also very old.
The family came from the village of Seissen, which is part of Blaubeuren. I also believe that it in turn is part of the larger City of Ulm. We reached Seissen and headed for the Church, which was located in the center of the village, expecting to find a grave yard there. There was no grave yard there, so so we guessed it was outside the village somewhere. A couple of friends were out for their morning walk, so we asked if they knew were we could find it. We got a very friendly smile and got the directions and headed off to find some graves.
We reached the graveyard located behind the red brick wall without any problem. There were people outside the wall picking up apples from the trees there. Upon entering the yard we could see that everyone in there was recently deceased. There were no very old or even just oldish graves to be found. So we took a few photos of family member names that were there and headed back to the village to see if we could ask about an older grave yard location.
We went to one old building that looked official and also old, so we started taken photos of it an others near it. A very kind granny stopped to ask if I needed help and told me the building was 400+ years old. She also asked in German what we were looking for and said we should go to the center of town to the Rath haus and find the Burger mister who spoke english very well. So that is what we did.
We found the office and waited for a bit and we were greeted by the Burger Mistress. Who was super kind and helpful looking in books for names and records. All of which were to new but surely related in some way. We did see some references to the two brothers as coming to america, but the books said they went to Pennsylvania, and also that Jacob was a weber (weaver)
She also informed us that we will find no old stones for long gone relatives. People here stay buried for only 20 years and then are removed. So we thanked her very much for all her help and as we started to leave she she said Oh and grabbed a little book and opened it. It was the telephone book and she showed my all the family still living in the village and surrounding areas. I will be giving this to my sister when we get home.
We were taking photos of the village center and were just about to leave when we were greeted by the very friendly woman who gave us directions to the graveyard. She had two lovely home made apple filled buns on a plate and offered them to us. We said thanks very much, how kind of you, she then replied that it is not often they they get americans in their village. She followed that with invitation into her home for coffee to go with them. So we excepted both.
We had a great chat, the buns tasted as great as they looked. She called her daughter downstairs to meet her and helped with some translations on a few occassions. As we parted she ran upstairs and brought down a lovely painting for us to bring home to remember the visit.
We ended up going to Heidelberg and it started pouring down rain. We decided to have our dinner there until we moved into a closer hotel position for our 2:00 pm departure in Frankfurt.
Lots of great things to see there in Heidelberg, the famous bridge, the church, the castle and the big square made for a very nice stop.
We then headed for our stop at Worms for the evening and got our hotel for the night. We discovered that our flight tomorrow will leave at 11:00 am not 2:00, which means we will have to really hustle tomorrow AM to get to the airport in time in rush hour traffic, dump the car and get in a nice long line to board the plan.
More fun and adventures await us tomorrow. We got some really nice photos today, we will share them soon.
It has been a great trip, thanks to all who welcomed us into their lives along the way and shared their cities and worked so hard on their planning great sites for us to visit. This has been a really special trip for us!
Thanks for the travel blog, it was a joy reading up about your travels. Greetings from the Lollygaggers! Have a good flight home and see you guys on the intarwebz!