Genealogy search in Germany

Today was my last full day in Germany before I head home tomorrow, so Lesa agreed to drive me about 90 miles south to a small village called Weislingen where my great, great grandparents were born. Spring break was over, so Chance and Bella had to go back to school today, so it was just Lesa and Rachael and I going for a drive.




Here's a photo of the town as you are driving in....it was foggy today, so it's not a very good view.



Most of my family has lived in Kansas for several generations, and the most recent immigrants were four generations ago, my great, great grandparents. On my father's side, there were two from England and one from Wales. On my mother's side, there were two from Germany, Christian Klein and Magdalena Hunsinger. There were both born in Weislingen before immigrating to the USA where the lived the rest of the lives near McPherson, KS. Their daughter, Katie Klein, married my great grandfather Hugh Holler, who was also from German heritage, but that was 8 generations ago. All of these ancestors were from the Alsace region, which is just south of where Lesa lives. Alsace is now a region of France which borders both Germany and Switzerland. At the time my ancestors lived there, it was mostly German territory and has a long history of going back and forth between France and Germany. The capitol of the Alsace region is Strasbourg, which often hosts international meetings such as the NATO summitt that was held there at the beginning of April. I don't want to be French, so I've decided that it is German territory for my purposes :)

This is a view of the foresty area you drive through right outside of town...it was so pretty, but my pictures aren't very good.


The village of Weislingen is very small, just a few streets, and doesn't even have a town square. According to wikipedia, it has 583 residents. It's quite a way off the main highways, but thankfully we had GPS to help us find it. We drove through the town and went to turn around and noticed a cemetary off to the side of the road, so we stopped. The cemetary was small, but full of Hunsingers, Kleins, Muglers, and other names from my family tree, so at least I knew I had found the right town!

The cemetary:


I took pictures of all of the tombstones with Klein or Hunsinger last names (there were about 20), but based on the birthdates, they would all be decendents of relatives who stayed, as they were all born in the mid to late 1800s. My great, great grandparents were born there in 1846 and 1854. I did not find their parents, but some of the older tombstones were no longer readable, so they could have been there.

Here's a photo of one of the many Klein tombstones I found:

another favorite pic

I forgot to post this one yesterday....it's Lesa and the kids walking through one of the entrances to the courtyard in the Louvre. You can see the famous pyramid entrance ahead.

Favorite Pics from Paris

This is a photo of Bella holding the museum map in on of the many hallways of the Louvre.



The kids sitting along the street in Paris, Bella is explaining to her mom that it was Chance's fault, not hers, for whatever offense jut occurred.



Lesa and Rachael in the Louvre.



Chance and Rachael looking through the window in the Louvre.



Lesa and Rachael on the boat taxi

Paris in a day - whew!

We decided to make a quick trip to Paris, which ended up being a lot of fun and quite tiring all at the same time! Lesa had a lunch thing on base that she was in charge of on Thursday, so we didn't leave until around 4:30 pm. It took us about 6 hours (numerous bathroom breaks) to get there, find our hotel, and find parking. That was quite an adventure all in itself! I'm an avid map reader, but nothing is on a grid in Paris (or anywhere Europe), so I had a lot of trouble following the map. Thankfully Lesa has GPS or we would have never (and i do mean never) found our hotel. We stayed at an unmarked hotel for French miltary officers that they allow American military to use when rooms are available. It was in the Latin Quarter, near many of the Universities, and across the street from the Sorbonne, though I never did figure out which building that was. Here's a photo of Rachael outside the door to the hotel.

It was after midnight by the time we got the kids settled down and asleep, so we slept in until 9:00 (my kind of schedule!) on Friday before heading out to explore the city. We stopped at a bakery for some chocolate croissants for breakfast and started walking to Notre Dame for our first destination. Since it was Good Friday, they were in the middle of mass when we arrived, but oddly enough, they allowed visitors to walk all around while this was going on. So while about 200 people were attending mass in this huge cathedral, there were hundreds of tourist walking around, taking photos, and purchasing things from the gift store at the side of the room. Quite a weird experience. We were forunate to get right in because as we left we noticed that the line had formed with a couple hundred people lining the courtyard in front.

The kids on a bridge over the river Seine with Notre Dame cathedral in the background



Chance holding Rachael in front of the entrance to Notre Dame cathedral.


Next we walked to the Louvre. We didn't want to take time to tour the whole museum, but we did want to go in and see part of it, so along with many other tourists, we headed straight for the Mona Lisa, the only painting familiar to me. The place is HUGE and there were tons of people there, as is evident in these photos.


This photo is of the Mona Lisa (the small painting in the middle of the photo surrounded by the mob of photographers.)


This next photo is Lesa and the kids outside the entrance to the Louvre.



After the Louvre, we hopped on one of the boat taxis to head to our final destination, the Eiffle Tower. Again, it was packed. I'm not a huge fan of crowds, so I was about done with Paris by this time, and the kids were starting to get a little cranky as well. We stopped at four different playgrounds during the day to give them play breaks, but it was still a lot of walking, and with a three year old along, we couldn't walk very fast.


Me and Chance in front of the Eiffel Tower.



That evening we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit, then met Lesa's cousin at a nearby restaurant. She has lived in Paris for over ten years, so she was able to help us read the menus and gave us some history about the restaurant. It was owned by a family from central France, so the cuisine was from their region, along with the wine. Lesa said it was dry wine, which is what she likes best. I don't really anything about wine, but I do know that I liked the wine she had at home better, which she said was German sweet wine. I had lamb with roasted garlic for dinner, which was wonderful. Lesa had roast duck, and the kids had a little bit of everything. After dinner I took them back the hotel for bed so Lesa and her cousin could visit without all the distractions. Oh, and the best part of the restaurant is that they had a big black cat named Morris who wandered around while we ate :)

And here is one of my favorite photos from the day. It's the kids down the steps from the Eiffel Tower, trying to do these weird poses for Lesa so she could get a photo where it looks like they are holding the tower in their hands.


I have a lot of other favorite photos that aren't necessarily of any Paris landmark that I'll try to put on here tomorrow.

Castle

Yesterday we went to visit Nanstein Castle, which is just up the hill from where they live in Landstuhl. Today we are heading to Paris, and will return on Saturday. Currently, the girls are crying/screaming "I don't want to go to Paris", so I think the trip will be fun. I think they are tired of road trips and just want to stay home and play. Oh well, poor kids have to go to Paris :) Here are a few photos from the castle.




Here is a photo of Ramstein air force base from the top of the castle. This is where Andy works.

Misc Germany Photos

The kids walking in front of the Cathedral in Cologne (see post below for more cathedral photos)


This is a german village we drove by near Trier (close to Luxemborg).

Rachael walking down the street in Cologne.

Cologne, Germany

On Tuesday, we took a short road trip (three hours each way) to Cologne (Koln). It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, and was founded in 38 BC. We went to the Koln Cathedral which was originally built in 1248. During world war II it survived 14 aerial bombs and is still standing despite 95% of the city being destroyed during the war.



We also went to the chocolate museum, and walked along the River Rhine which runs through the middle of Cologne.

Free samples from the chocolate fountain in the back: