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, […]
Category Archives: Family History Tours
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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 […]
Falkenstein on Donnersberg
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 […]
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, […]