Germany Trip preparation

While I had been researching at the Family History Center (FHC) at the Palm Desert stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), I came to understand that, like many organizations in the Coachella Valley, the center would be closed during the whole month of August. I gradually came to think of that as a time for a trip to do research at the geographic source of data. "After all," I reasoned, "the LDS hasn't microfilmed all the available sources of each town. Mostly only one type of source information is available for a given town. I could contact the archives that hold un-microfilmed records and review those records in person."

So far, I've made such visits to north-central U.S. (Wisconsin and Minnesota); Kansas (Beloit and Osborne); the National Road (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois); the possible river and overland routes to the middle of Kansas (Hannibal MO, St. Joseph MO, Kansas City MO/KS, and the river systems west from Kansas City); the Ohnsat settlement area of Pittsburgh PA; the Deneke and Stephan settlement area of Cincinnati OH; the Michael Kohn home in Leavenworth KS; the home of Chuck's great grandparents (Delaware OH); and the Cleveland area homes of Chuck's family. What remained were the Ohnsat destinations in central California, the Reinert destinations in western Kansas, the homes of emigration from Germany/Prussia, and the homes of emigration from Sicily for Chuck's grandmother Angelina Russo Femminella and grandfather Giovanni Iacano.

Grand Tour Plans

The most attractive choice was to visit Sicily with Chuck, but he didn't want to discuss the details of planning such a trip. Or rather, he wanted a long Grand Tour that included the Amalfi Coast and all of Sicily. I proposed an itinerary that followed the general plan, but he balked at a length of about five weeks. So those plans were shelved.

Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland

Possibly, I thought, I could visit southern Ireland. My maternal grandmother Anastasia Butler's family came from Thomastown, County Kilkenny. Perhaps even Chuck would be interested in visiting a country for a short time that he believes his family had come from. —My own research seemed to put his belief in great doubt: his 4th great grandfather might be Balthasar Düry, whose father came from northern Germany.

Destinations in the U.S. did not have much attraction: Sheridan County KS; Chicago and New Trier IL; Onandaga County NY; Merced County CA offered information for family members who had lived there from a few weeks to several years. I felt that the month without use of the local FHC warranted use of much of that time for a trip.

Homes of emigration for my German great-grandparents

Another attractive choice was to visit the homes of all my German great-grandparents. That would include six towns: Wasserliesch (western Rheinland-Pfalz that was John M. Kohn's home), Igel (western Rheinland-Pfalz that was Susanna Reinert's home), Brakel (northern Nordrhein-Westfalen that was Anton Deneke's home), Königheim (northern Baden-Württemberg that was Anna Maria Stephan's home), Breisach am Rhein (western Baden-Württemberg that was Anna Maria Leopoldina Salinger's home), and Grüben (central Opole that was Robert Ohnsat's home). I could also visit the former U.S. Air Force base that I had been stationed at and the town I had lived in (Sohren in Rheinland-Pfalz) during 1977 to 1980.

I estimated that the visit would require three or four weekdays at each town, and I could use the weekends for visiting cities because the towns' Standesämter (city clerk offices) and Pfarreien (parish offices) would be closed. Thus: 18 to 24 weekdays and 3 to 5 weekends, plus some additional time for research in larger libraries or state archives. That seemed pretty long to me, and much too long to Chuck. So I needed to cut it down.

Working Toward a Focus

Chuck first suggested that, since the Grüben visit was in Poland and an 8-hour drive away from the closest research area in Germany, he would agree to some later trip together to visit Berlin and Grüben, and perhaps to include Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, and Krakow—details to be planned later.

That left a plan to visit five ancestral towns with time available to visit a few towns of tangential interest and one or two libraries that hold books of interest to my research:

• Wasserliesch, R-P
• Igel, R-P
• Breisach am Rhein, B-W
• Königheim, B-W
• Brakel, N-W
• Trier, R-P
• Saarburg, R-P
• Temmels, R-P
• Wasserbillig, LUX
• Luxembourg, LUX
• Ettlingen, 
• Rastatt, 
• Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart
• Nationalbibliothek in Frankfurt am Main

I could even work in perhaps a weekend visiting the stomping grounds around Hahn Air Base near Sohren.

Final Itinerary