From a visit on September 16, 2012 The church of St. Gallus in Willmandingen dates back to at least 1220. That’s when scientists determined the paintings in the tiny chapel on the ground floor of the tower were created. Those paintings, depicting scenes from the life of Jesus, were whitewashed over in the 1500s soon […]
Category Archives: Family History Tours
Discover your Family History and research your genealogy with an ancestral home tour.
Visiting Relatives in Willmandingen
Events occurred on September 16, 2012 A trip revolving around family history depends on connections made. One of those connections was made with the pastor of the church in tiny Willmandingen, Germany. A letter sent to the pastor’s office by Beth Renney from Fresno, California reached across the miles and the years, resulting in a […]
Willmandingen, Germany and the Roots of the Heinz Family
September 16 Today Suzanne Pellegrino and Beth Renney spent time with another side of the family, the Heinz side, which stems from the village of Willmandingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Our visit started with church service at the Protestant St. Gallus, dating from 1903 but built onto the remains of a much older tower from at least […]
Visiting German Relatives in Hoinkhausen
(From a visit made to Hoinkhausen on September 12 and 13) When German relatives know you’re coming, the red carpet not only gets rolled out, it gets wrapped around you. Suzanne Pellegrino and her sister Beth Renney not only gave their relatives in tiny Hoinkhausen, Germany advance notice, they gave them nearly a year to […]
St. Pankratius in Hoinkhausen, Germany
September 15, 2012 The Catholic Church of Saint Pankratius is the ancestral church of Suzanne Pellegrino and Elizabeth Renney’s Mollerus ancestors, who settled in this village in the last years of the 18th century. The church was built as early as the 12th century. A stone triptych on the north entrance of the church dates […]
The Odenwald’s Silent Sentinal
September 10, 2012 Like a stone sentinal guarding the rolling hills of the Odenwald Forest, Auerbach Castle high above Bensheim-Auerbach has stood tall for more than 800 years. We visited this ruin on a warm September day while exploring ancestral Bensheim and Mannheim nearby. Auerbach Castle was built by Charlamagne and then rebuilt and enlarged […]
Mannheim, Germany
September 9, 2012 What do the world’s first automobile, the first bicycle and the first tractor have in common? Mannheim! All three were invented in this industrial town on the banks of the rivers Rhein and Neckar in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Known as “Grid City” the bustling large town was built on the […]
Jewish History in Pittigliano, Tuscany
May 10 There was once a flourishing Jewish community in this fortified Tuscan village. Kicked out of the Papal States (those areas immediately surrounding Rome) by Popes in the 16th century, a large settlement developed in Pittigliano where they were given protection by the local ruling family. In ‘Little Jerusalem’ there can be seen many […]