We ate lunch in Ladenberg and found that the discipline of children could be totally absent. A German family had three children, and the two who were large enough to walk ran all over the restaurant making much noise. We had another two instances of this during our three weeks which was not what we expected in Germany.
In the afternoon, we drove through the heart of Heidelberg to be able to go up the Neckar River to some castles. I always fear leaving town. Getting into the town is not hard, but it is very easy to get lost on the way out of town. This time, we made the exit perfectly, perhaps because we were using the strategy of following the Neckar River. Upstream from Heidelberg there are several castles (Gutenberg, which we visited on the last trip, is one; see the photos on the Gutenberg Photos page on the Germanna Colonies Family History Web Site). We picked Hirschhorn Castle to explore. It involved a long walk uphill and when we got to the top there was really nothing to see except the Neckar River. I recommend avoiding this one.
We continuing along the Neckar River, almost to Heilbronn, where we crossed back into the Kraichgal, the home of many Germanna people. We were still staying in Gemmingen, where we spent the previous night, so we returned there. On one of the two evenings in Gemmingen we went to Zaberfeld, the home of the Käfers, and to Stetten a. Heuchelberg, the home of the Holds/Holts. Many other Germanna villages are not far away.
The fourth day was to be a big day. We drove to the east through Heilbronn and stopped to visit the village of Waldbach, which is where the Waylands hailed from. Then we headed for a series of small villages not far from Feuchtwangen in Bavaria. The first was Haundorf, where Martin Utz, the grandfather of our 1717 George Utz, was from. From there we could see, at a distance of about a mile, Seiderzell, where Michael Utz, the father of George Utz, lived (this is where George was born). About the same distance away from there was Kühnhard, where the grandmother and great-grandmother of George lived. Some of the villages were so small they did not have churches, so the church at Mosbach was used. This is somewhere between a mile and two miles from Kühnhard. About two miles north of Mosbach is Bergnerzell, where several of these people lived. All together, five villages were involved, and one could be in one of the villages and have the other four villages in the viewfinder of a wide angle lens (the countryside was relatively flat and open).
In Bergnerzell, I made inquiries as to whether there were any people by the name of Utz living there. The man went inside and brought out a telephone book and showed me a page and a half with the Utz name. He thought it was humorous. Whether he was smiling at the crazy American who would ask the question, or whether he was smiling at the answer of a page and a half of Utzes I don’t know. Perhaps both.
I tell some of my Bavarian friends that I have more Bavarian ancestors and cousins than they do. At least one agrees with me.
(03 Jun 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.