We went to Gresten in both 2000 and 2002. In 2002, we made a side journey to Vienna to see one street, namely Plankenbuechlergasse. The "gasse" portion of this means a short street. Short or long, I wanted to see the street that was named for a cousin who was a Mayor or District Mayor for Vienna. This particular man threw in a "c" just before the "h" It was a challenge to get the name of the street on the signs.
In the year 2000, after being told of the mass migration of Austrians, from the area of Gresten, to Dietenhofen in Bavarian Germany, we noted that Dietenhofen was not out of our way in returning to Frankfort. In addition, it would be a Sunday so we could go to the Lutheran Church. We arrived at Dietenhofen early Saturday afternoon and we went to some of the nearby villages. We had some interest in doing this as many of the Blankenbuehlers in Germany (there are about 15) live in this region. One third of the German Blankenbuehlers live near the village of Lonnerstadt.
In the graveyard at Lonnerstadt I had a severe shock. Yes, there were stones for Blankenbuehlers, but there were stones for Hieronymus, Lang, Marr, Motz, Thoma, and Wieland. Some of these are fairly common names but to see this number of Germanna names in one cemetery was a shock. In Gresten, I had begun to form the idea that it was also the earlier home of some of the Germanna families. (The Germanna Hieronymus family claims an origin in Austria.)
When I was on the Pletzenberg farm outside Gresten, the owner was updating the electrical wiring. I looked down at a card board box that some of the material had been shipped in. The electrical contractor's name was Scheible (or something very close to this). Not until we were home did I note that there was a Scheiblau farm about one-half mile from the Plankenbichl farm. Since there were Scheibles in Neuenbuerg, Germany, with the Blankenbuehlers, and since George Scheible had his land patent in Virginia in the midst of the Blankenbuehlers and their clan, I felt that the presence of the Scheiblau farm next to the Plankenbichl farm in Austria was especially significant.
On Sunday, we did go to the Lutheran church in Dietenhofen. The pastor and his wife both spoke excellent English so we could talk for a while. He was well aware that 600 or so people had come from Gresten to Dietenhofen about 1655. He claimed there were so many that the church had to raise the roof to put in a balcony.
Today there are bus trips between Dietenhofen and Gresten so that the Germans can see where they came from, and the Austrians can see where their relatives went.
(26 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.