As I work to prepare the digital uploading of more than 100,000 images from my vast archive (work performed all over Europe from 1989-present) I come across these small vignettes that I would like to share with you.
My client Margie Weiler is not just a family history enthusiast. She is a family history maniac, and I put that in the kindest and most affectionate way possible. She would arrive fully loaded with binders of meticulously-documented information on branches of her and her husband’s family trees. The detail was truly astounding. I should not have been surprised. Margie spent decades working for the Jet Propulsion Lab in their satellite division. She designed systems which still work today to inform us about weather patterns and storms.
Over the course of multiple trips to Germany, Switzerland and England Margie and I visited at least (this is not a typo) 50 ancestral villages and hamlets. I was there to handle logistics and the photography. Here is just a tiny sample of what we discovered in Yardley-Hastings, West Northhamptonshire, England in the spring of 2018.
Yardley Hastings postcard view. The day we visited was cloudy but we circled around the next day when the sun had come out and I shot this from a pasture.
Margie talks with the rector of the church. Even though she had all of the ancestors’ data, names and dates, it was still important for her to see and feel the actual places they lived before coming to the New England colonies in the 17th century.
Standing by the Norman baptismal font (Pre 1066) and details of the ancient church of Yardley-Hastings
The church dates from Norman times, so prior to the invasion of 1066 by William the Conqueror. The tower is Norman, the long house is from the 14th century.
Cottages in the village center
Me, making a friend at the rector’s home
You too can have the experience of a lifetime, with old records and old photos brought to full three dimensional life through a custom-designed, private tour organized just for you and your loved ones. No buses, no mix and match with incompatible strangers – just you, and your interests. To learn more, just send me an e-mail inquiry form “Family History Tour” found here on this site.