Up til now, I have been so lucky the way things have been unfolding with my trip. First, a friend hooks me up with friends of hers that live in Germany who offer to pick me up at the airport and show me around Stuttgart. Then, the Reverend of the church where Leonhard's family attended in the mid 19th century arranges for a wonderful parishoner who wants to accompany me and translate. Then, we discover that the Chairperson of the local genealogy society is a distant cousin! Can things get any better than that? Read on and see...
About the time that I was in Salt Lake City, researching at the Family History Library, my new found cousin made a visit to the city archive in Geislingen an der Steige, where all the old parish records are kept. With the assistance of the city archivist, Willi-Martin was able to go back in the village records and track down the exact house where my great-great grandfather, Leonhard was born! He said the street names had changes several times in the past 175 years, but they were able to track the name changes and found the street, and the house, which still exists!
The name of the street is Falkengasse. I tried to take a peak on Google Maps but it doesn't zoom close enough to see the actual buildings, just an arial view. Willi-Martin even thinks that the descendants of one of Leonhard's older sister still lives in the house. I'm not sure how he figured this out, unless he was able to trace the ownership of the property. I'll have to ask him...
So Willi-Martin made a visit to the church in Aufhausen, and met with Rev. Reich-Bochtler and Mrs. Löffler about my visit. He has an appointment on Tuesday, November 23rd, to visit the family that lives on Falkengasse to confirm if we are related, and hopefully make arrangements for me to visit with them in May!
No comments:
Post a Comment