Regensburg and Hometowns

Thursday – Finally the day to head out to hometowns. We had folks going out in all directions and we are hoping they have an awesome day. Matthias and I head down to Regensburg to meet up with our Bavarian researcher friend, Marianne Sutter, who is meeting us at the catholic church archives in Regensburg to help me with my Bavarian ancestors. Marianne had done some work for me a few years ago in conjunction with a colleague of hers who has a collection of newspapers from the 19^th century which lists emigrants leaving the country and if your person is mentioned there is a good chance the hometown is also indicated. That is how I found the town after many years of searching “just Bavaria”. So with Marianne and Matthias’s help I am back to late 1600’s on this family. We also walked around this beautiful city with remnants of a Roman wall, a historic stone bridge and we climbed the clock tower on the bridge for a fantastic view down the River Danube. Only from above with a beautiful blue sky does the Danube look blue.

Tonight we find out how the hometown visits went. Sounds like everything went great and everyone had a wonderful time. Some folks got to see the school, house and church their ancestor went to. They met an older lady from the town who had a picture of school children from the time period so they know their gr-grandfather is on there somewhere. Others were fed and fed and fed, 4 times at different people's homes in their hometown. They received books on the town history, and photos and visited a cousin's house. Another lady met a whole bunch of cousins and was overloaded with gifts of wine and beer and other souvenirs of the town. All in all it was a very successful day!