Rhineland Tour 2011

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.  […]

How They Lived and How They Left

Today we visit a “Freilichtmuseum”, 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 […]

Resources for Finding that Town

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 […]

Walking Through the Past

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.  Do a little bit every day so that you don’t get tired out while visiting Germany.  Also, if you plan on buying new walking shoes get them and break […]

More German Christmas Traditions

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 they’ve been good. His servant, Knecht Ruprech, leaves bundles of twigs in the shoes if the […]