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We started easy our first day by relaxing up the Rhine on a river cruise. I say up because we were going South, which to someone who lives near the Mississippi going south is downriver, but the Rhine runs from south to north so our trip up the Rhine to Rudesheim was about 4 hours. […]
Today we visit a âFreilichtmuseumâ, an open air living history museum. These open air museums are scattered throughout Germany and give a good representation of how people lived in a certain region of Germany. We visited the one in Detmold, representing the Northern Westphalia area. One of the largest museums it has over 100 houses […]
It is always exciting for me to welcome another group to Germany on their discovery of their ancestorâs home place. They usually arrive with the facts of their family and hopefully they leave with a little more of the story of their family. So on Sunday the 19th we greeted our group to the Northwest […]
TO FIND THE KIND OF INFORMATION YOU NEED, turn first to ALL available U.S. (or other non-European) records for an ancestor who emigrated to America, and his descendants (starting with yourself and working backward, without interruption). These include birth, marriage and death records (issued by BOTH the civil government AND a person’s Catholic or Lutheran […]
âI canât go yet, I donât know the townâ. I hear that all the time and I agree it is special to be able to walk through the exact town your ancestor did but what if you never find that town? I donât want to burst any oneâs bubble but that is a possibility. Not […]
Less than two months before my next small group tour to Germany in June. This is about the time I tell the group to start walking. Â Do a little bit every day so that you donât get tired out while visiting Germany. Â Also, if you plan on buying new walking shoes get them and break […]
WDYTYA – And Heritage Travel WDYTYA (Who Do You Think You Are for those not in the know) is a hit, at least with the genealogy world. Â The blogosphere and Blog Radio and message boards are ablaze with opinions and comments about recent shows. Â Seems to me these shows are as analyzed as much as […]
Treasures from an Ancestral Hometown Visit Snowed in, I guess youâve heard that a lot of the country had a blizzard. So this gave me an opportunity to get some things done that I normally think I donât have time to do. One of these things was to wash the dishes that I keep in […]
More German Christmas Traditions On the evening of December 5th, St. Nicholas Day, German children leave their shoes or boots outside the front door. That night, Santa Claus, Nikolaus, visits and fills them with chocolates, oranges and nuts if theyâve been good. His servant, Knecht Ruprech, leaves bundles of twigs in the shoes if the […]