Every family historian should have a castle or two in their genealogy. Virginia (Gini) Packwood now has one, and it’s the former “Reichenburg” fortress located in the hamlet of Falkenstein, located in a high valley on the Donnersberg, Rheinland-Pfalz. We drove there on the 27th on a narrow road which was being worked on and […]
Category Archives: Family History Tours
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Weitersweiler Secrets Revealed, Why Bury Our Dead In Dreisen?
Gini and Bill Packwood had a question for the mayor of Standenbuehl when we sat down with him in his dining room one sunny day recently. It’s sort of an odd question, but it would make perfect sense to a family historian. “Mr. Mayor. Our ancestors lived in Standenbuehl. They went to church in Weitersweiler, […]
Genealogy Success in Standenbuehl and Roland Geiger Does it Again
Thanks to genealogy research Roland Geiger, who is headquartered in the lovely town of St. Wendel, Saarland, Bill and Gini Packwood were able to break through one of their “Brick Walls” in genealogy and find the origin of their emigrant ancestor, Johann Merkel, of Standenbuehl and later, Stetten in Donnersbergkreis near Kirchheimbolanden, Germany. We also […]
Genealogy is impossible without people like this
Where would genealogists be without people who can read the old German script like Erich Scherer? We met Herr Scherer today in the church office of Arzberg, in the Bavarian Forest near the border with the Czech Republic. His name had been given to guide James Derheim by a contact developed by Paula Leitzell, current […]
Praise for Genealogist Georg Grüneberg Specializing in Brandenburg
From Dena Ward, who hired Georg Grüneberg to do research for her in Brandenburg, Germany. Herr Grüneberg did work for Dena and her sister Grace in advance of our visit to the area in October, 2008. He has since done much more work, and Dena’s comments of August 23 are: I just wanted to let […]
Schwerin's Magnificent Castle
The castle of Schwerin is something out of a kid’s coloring book. And, it’s gotten more colorful as the years have passed since the reunification of Germany in 1990. When I first saw this castle, it was gray and crumbling. Now it’s shining and beautiful from the outside, although a visit reveals that the interior […]
Tessin's 13th century church
Welcome to our newest guests, Paula and Bob Leitzell from California. On the way into Tessin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the other day, Jim asked her, “How long have you waited to visit this village?” Paula replied, “Well, I first found out about the connection with my family about 12 or 13 years ago. I found you through […]
Ancient paintings in the church of St. Clemens, Marklohe
The church of St. Clemens (12th century) in the hamlet of Marklohe, near Nienburg an der Weser, Lower Saxony features some of the best-preserved ancient paintings in Germany. One of only 10 churches with a complete and undestroyed mural dating from pre-Reformation (1522) times, the mural depicts scenes from the Bible with an emphasis on […]