We took a Sunday drive today from our home base in Villefranche-sur-Mer over to Monte Carlo, in Monaco. I think we can all attest to why nearby Menton is 100,000,000 times more charming and likeable than Monte Carlo. The city has lost all sense of itself amongst the many ugly behemoths that crowd the waterfront. […]
Category Archives: Family History Tours
Discover your Family History and research your genealogy with an ancestral home tour.
After all of the Genealogy, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and a lunch stop in Ulm
The Packwoods had just completed a rather intense week of experiences visiting their ancestral villages in Rheinland-Pfalz. As the trip wound down, we made a stop for a couple of nights in the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber before continuing on the 4th to Dachau, where their escorted trip ended and their independent […]
A New Relative in Waldsee Found
Thanks to a short article published in the local newspaper, Gini Packwood and her husband Bill were able to touch a letter written by Gini’s great-grandmother in 1923. The letter was sent to her sister, Elisabeth Graef, back in the village of Waldsee, Rheinland-Pfalz. Clara Graef Spindler had left this village suddenly many years prior, […]
A Chance Encounter in Waldsee Results in a New Relative Found
Gini and Bill Packwood have a new friend in Ludwigshafen, an industrial community located south of Frankfurt am Main. About a year ago, Gini Packwood ordered a “Familienbuch” published by the community of Waldsee. The book was painstakingly researched over a period of six years by octogenarian Paul Schwaningner. The book lists her entire family […]
Visit to Neupotz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
Gini and Bill Packwood’s day in Neupotz was arranged like a military campaign by enthusiastic Burgermeister Emil Heid. He had our schedule, starting at 10, broken down into segments right down to the 15-minutes spent in the tiny local history museum currently located in the attic of the Rathaus. Of course, conversation, questions and just […]
Still Making Wicker Baskets in Neupotz
Karl Heid will turn 80 in a couple of months but he’s still busy making wicker baskets the “old-fashioned” way in the village where he was born along the Rhein River. His hometown of Neupotz has a history dating back to pre-Roman times. Surrounded by the serpentine “Old Rhein,” the village has maintained an uneasy […]
A Visit to Stetten Part II
No visit to a German small town is complete without being invited over to someone’s house for “Kaffee und Kuchen,” or in this case, “Zweite Fruhstueck.” (Second Breakfast) When we met Frau Probst out on the Steigstrasse, she said “come back to my house after you see the church and you can join us for […]
A Visit to Stetten, Rheinland-Pfalz Part I
Just getting to the right Stetten for genealogist Virginia Packwood was a challenge. There are more than 20 villages in Germany with the name of “Stetten,” and finding the correct one related to her Merkel ancestry took some time and work, not to mention a couple of decades when she and her husband Bill were […]