One of the delights of travel in Germany is meeting people. I had corresponded with some of these before the trips, and some I met for the first time on a trip. The web is one way of getting introduced. This is how I met Jost Gudelius and his family. Jost has a connection with the Nassau-Siegen area as one of his ancestors was the first pastor at Oberfischbach after the Thirty Years' War. We became acquainted because I had mentioned a Gudelius in these notes which popped up in a Google search. (This Gudelius was an ill-fated member on the ship Oliver in the year 1738.) As Jost and I corresponded, we started trading information of a personal nature and I tried out some my fifty-year-old German, which was never very good. But Jost was very kind and when he heard that we were going to Germany he suggested we visit them in southern (within sight of the border) Bavaria. This was so much fun that we visited again in on the second trip.
In Austria, I have recounted how we met Florian Berger and his wife Elisabeth.
In Trupbach, on our first visit, we met Lars Bohn, who had been introduced to us by a friend. He and Eleanor hit it off very well (as grandmothers and grandchildren tend to do). On our second trip, Lars had some more information about his ancestry, and it turns out that he is my sixth cousin. In addition, through Lars, we met some of the other residents of Trupbach who have visited Germanna since then.
We were able to make contact with the pastor of the church in Kettenbach from where Eleanor's Zerby ancestor left in 1709. Our visit to Kettenbach included a church service and a violin concert, besides a look at the Church Record showing the Serbi surname entries.
After our first trip, I was more determined to contact people who might have more information about my Germanna ancestors. On the first trip, I had knocked on the door of the pastor's house in Illenschwang. He was away but his wife was home and she gave us a tour of the church. She said that we were not the first; many visitors from the States visit Illenschwang.
Through the aid of a friend, we made contact with the Fritz Gaar family, who live in a village about two miles from Illenschwang. At the time, in 2002, they had a fifteen-year-old daughter whose English was very good. She acted as an interpreter so we had a long visit. We took them to dinner and they went with us to Illenschwang to see the current pastor and the church. I gave the church a large photo of Hebron and the
History of Hebron
by Huddle. Then on Sunday morning we went to church. Fritz (Friedrich) Gaar is descended from a brother of Andreas Gaar, who went to America (Fritz is my sixth cousin by one path). The Fritz Gaar family is still Lutheran.
(27 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.