I’m not a fan of alarm clocks, most especially while on vacation. But I did my duty and dragged myself in and out of the shower and got in the car when I was supposed to. We arrived in Koblintz and picked up my mother.

Mom had been extremely busy while not in my care. She and Christine did lots of chatting and stamping and at some point mom told Christine the whole Hershbroich story (where they went to the right town in the wrong district) and so Christine called someone who was not very believing of mom’s story. Then Christine called the mayor of the town.

Who we now know is related to us. We drove an hour and a half to the town of Herschbroich which is nestled in the same hill/mountains that we are currently staying in. The population is about 280 people. The town is one of three towns in the middle of some large and very famous racetrack. Mom and the mayor got all geeky about family history and ship logs and emigration reports. Anyway – I have some stories for history buffs that I found interesting.

Herschbroich Germany used to be located on both sides of the little river that runs through the valley except the houses of the far side of the river all burned down 6 or 7 times so that is all field now. In 1600 they built the church on this side of the river. They know there had been a church there as far back as the 1200s because there was a complaint that the town didn’t pay their church tax for two years in a row. Everybody could inherit land – even the girls. But everybody got equal shares of the fields the buildings the woods. So at this point everybody owns little plots of land all here and there. But in order to leave, for America or something, you had to apply and pay a fee and you could never come back. So what the young men would do is leave with the trade carts, in effect they would sneak out of town and then leave for America through ports in France or London and if everything went well they would write home and have the lands sold and the money sent to them. If things did not go well then they could come back.

The theory as to why our relative didn’t want to talk to us is because rumor has it that when my ancestors wrote back to have everything sold and the money sent to them – not everything was sold and the part of the family that stayed behind kept some of the land and now they are afraid we came to get our part of the land back from them. Mind you that all this happened back in 1800.

The town used to have copper mines – they mine shafts were all named after the daughters of the owner.

After the protestant reformation swept through Poland after WWI there were all kinds of religious things laying in the streets. Some of the troops in Bern were on their way home when they found a large altar front laying in the street and they brought it all the way home where it is in the church to this day. It is a little too ornate for the village and it looks to be from the mid 1600.

Mostly I think it was a great day.

Last night I was hammering out details for the trip when I found that one of the museums was restoring some of the shrines – a project that started last month and is projected to take two years. There will be some international exhibit at the end of it all. I wrote to the lead restorer but have not had any word back. I would very dearly like to interview her while I’m still in a position to do so.

Tomorrow I go to France for the first time in my life! Pretty exciting stuff.