Bob and Paula Leitzell on Day 3 of their trip
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 “Genealogical Helper.” Now, European Focus has not advertised regularly in “Genealogical Helper” since the middle of the 1990s. That means that Paula has waited a very long time indeed to see the beautiful Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tessin, built in 1250 and extended in 1350.
Support pillars have held since 1350
The crucifix in St. Johannes dates from 1740
This church was really the start of Paula’s on location genealogical research in Germany. Jim had arranged, prior to out trip, to have church archives open so that Paula could access early records of her families. Many of these records are only available at the various town archives and not available at the LDS library in Salt Lake or on-line. There is no way that we could have arranged to make such contacts ourselves. At each location, we were welcomed by the person that knew why we were there so they had the records available for Paula’s use while I was enjoying a beer at a local pub or taking town photos. I could have even left my camera at home since Jim does a great job of documenting the trip. He even photographed some of the ancestral records for Paula.