This is the time of the year when thoughts turn to travel. Some of us will be lucky enough to be going to Germany on the Germanna Foundation-sponsored tour and it will be an experience that will not be forgotten soon. Several people are repeats which shows how good the trip is. Eleanor and I are not going; we shot our wad (i.e., dollars) in the years 2000 and 2002. I thought I might highlight some of the events which have stayed in my memory, in particular, the finding of some remote and out of the way places. Some of these were a real challenge and others were routine, i.e., just following a map.
In the late 1600's and early 1700's, Wagenbach was an estate farm with several Germanna citizens on it, including George Utz, Maria Sabina Folg, and Martin Walk (both of these latter two are Volck in German). This farm is on the map, so it was a case of following the map. Without an invitation to visit, we wondered what kind of reception we might have. There was one thing to do and that was to knock on the door if I could find the right door.
Not far from Wagenbach is Unterbiegelhof, another estate farm. This name appeared on our map but without any dot to pinpoint the location. We did have some general information from the staff at the Hans Herr House because this is where Hans Herr lived. By asking a couple of locations, we found that Unterbiegelhof was not exactly a household name. It was suggested that we drive out a certain road. Luckily that was correct and luckily we happened to see a small sign by the road which said Unterbiegelhof. Down the small road at this point brought us to houses and barns. Again we had no invitation but a dog announced our arrival. This brought out the dog’s master.
The third place was Plankenbichl outside Gresten, Austria. We arrived in town (village) and went first to the police station where no one was home. Then we went to the Rathaus (city hall) and asked a few questions in English but the clerk did not know English; however, he called over another man, Florian Berger, who was an insurance agent. We explained our desire to see Plankenbichl and he said he would take us there after he concluded some work. It turns out he was acquainted with this farm since his mother was born on the farm.
In 2002, I wanted to find the farm where an ancestor of Andreas Gaar had lived. In the church record, it said the man (Hans Gaar) was from Kolnpach. This is a nonexistent name in that no directory shows this exact spelling. Even I could guess that perhaps what was meant was Kolmbach. There is a city by this name, but it is not in the right location. Consulting Ken McCrea's Directory of German localities (a CD), I found a mention of the place in southeast Bavaria (generally expected), but without giving an exact location.
[to be continued]
(15 Apr 05)
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.