April 29 The little church in the riverside village of Wahlhausen, Thuringen, Germany is a testament to what a lack of heating can do to preserve art. The Church of St. Margaret was built on the bank of the Werra River in 1718 through donations by the local ruling family, the von Hansteins, who […]
Category Archives: Family History Tours
Discover your Family History and research your genealogy with an ancestral home tour.
Hasselbach and Allendorf Ancestral Discoveries
April 22 and 23 Dennis Jenkins from Grand Junction, Colorado wanted to find out more about his ancestral ties to the hamlet of Hasselbach near Weilburg, Hessen, Germany. Dennis takes the record for waiting the longest between first learning about European Focus Private Tours (1998) to actually stepping off the plane to begin his personal […]
Finding Ancestral Connections in Frankenthal, Germany
April 17 Paul Skelton wanted to see where his German ancestors lived before emigrating to Australia. And so, as part of an extended multiple week long trip that also included England and Ireland, Paul and his wife Rhonda and their son Andrew booked a short week-long tour with European Focus which revolved around a visit […]
You mean you actually will custom-design and lead a trip for just two people?
We get this question often at our retail store “European Focus Village” in the heart of Sarasota, Florida. The answer is, “Yes, all of the time!” In fact, more than half of the 10-15 trips we design and lead each season (March through October) are with repeat clients, couples, who have been completely spoiled by […]
An Ancestral Discovery Worth the Climb
(From October 2) We spent three memorable days and nights in the beautiful valley around Prato allo Stelvio, in Sud Tyrol, technically in Italy but the locals all believe they are Tyroleans first, Italians a distant second. We were told by the mayor of the town, perhaps a distant relative of our guest, to go […]
St. Gallus Church in Willmandingen, Germany
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 […]
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 […]