The Train Journey—Part I
Train image from a Budapest Post Card Josef sent to Lisi in December, 1910, when he traveled toward Bremen. Lisi’s train probably looked similar It’s a mixed up world in Lisi’s diary. She knew her trip to America [...]
Train image from a Budapest Post Card Josef sent to Lisi in December, 1910, when he traveled toward Bremen. Lisi’s train probably looked similar It’s a mixed up world in Lisi’s diary. She knew her trip to America [...]
Bags packed. Ready to go. Hugs, and tears and kisses all around. “I’ll write as soon as I can,” Lisi says to her father, sisters and brother. “Safe journey,” they say. “Come back to us.” “We’ll miss you so.” I [...]
The pocket watch lay in Box 14 for the past seventeen years—and untold decades prior—in my grandparents’ cedar chest. I had assumed it was my grandfather’s watch, but didn’t know when he had acquired it. Its wide, crisply-numbered face and [...]
First page of Josef Gärtz’s diary on right; lower left he wrote “Kronprinz Wilhelm” see detail Even handwritten documentation from our ancestors can lead us astray as we search for the details of their pasts. In my case, [...]
Lutheran Church, NeppendorfWelcome TRAVEL TUESDAY Come, enter with me into the courtyard of the Evangelische Kirche Neppendorf. We’ve been here before—and learned when and from where (late 18th century and Gerstheim, Alsace, respectively) our forebears made their way [...]