Going to the Dogs
Given the shocking name of “Linda” TRAVEL TUESDAY My parents named me Linda. This shocked my grandfather, Josef. He said to my father, “For why you name a girl Linda? In Romania they only name the dogs Linda.” [...]
Given the shocking name of “Linda” TRAVEL TUESDAY My parents named me Linda. This shocked my grandfather, Josef. He said to my father, “For why you name a girl Linda? In Romania they only name the dogs Linda.” [...]
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 [...]
Lutheran Church Neppendorfinterior TRAVEL TUESDAY After my brothers and I read the summarized history of the Gärtz (originally Gerz or Görz) family handed to us by the church secretary, Renate, when we visited my grandfather’s church in his hometown of [...]
Vlad Dr?culea III TRAVEL TUESDAY When I tell friends or new acquaintances that my grandparents hailed from Transylvania, the Dracula jokes start flying (“Well, I guess I’ll watch my neck” or “Good Bloodlines,” and so on). For those [...]
Renate, Neppendorf Lutheran Church secretary and keeper of genealogical treasures. TRAVEL TUESDAY What’s in a Name? I had no inkling our family surname had ever been anything other than Gärtz. But then we visited my grandfather’s home town [...]