And now for something completely different! Yesterday we made a day trip into the Czech Republic, the primary purpose of which was to visit the hometown of some of my ancestors. My grandma had supplied me with copies of the information that various relatives had gathered about our family's origins, in the hopes I would get a chance to visit while in Germany. David and I both were quite interested to do so.
Like most Americans I am a mutt when it comes to heritage, but I am proud to be 50 percent German. All my mother's grandparents were born in Germany. My grandfather's first language was German. But was my Grandma Bette's parents we were chasing yesterday.
According to the records I've been given, my great-great grandfather Joseph was born in Wassersuppen, a German-speaking town in the region of Bohemia, in 1841. The political history of Bohemia is pretty complex (Wikipedia and Britannica have more info), but it was part of the Habsburg Empire (along with Bavaria), and then part of the new country of Czechoslovakia after World War II. Today Wassersuppen is known as Nemanice and is in the Czech Republic.
Joseph and his wife Mary were both born in Wassersuppen and married there in 1868. In 1884, Joseph sailed for America with his eldest son Joseph Jr., arriving at the port of Baltimore. Joseph's wife followed about a year later with the three other children, including my great-grandfather Charles, who was seven years old. What a journey that must have been! They settled in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and my relatives have been in Minnesota ever since. My parents met and married in Minnesota before quite sensibly moving to Oregon.
Wassersuppen/Nemanice is only a few miles across the border from Germany and about an hour and a half from our current base in Regensburg.
The trip was a bit of an adventure on several fronts. First, our rental car insurance is not valid in the Czech Republic (in fact we are not even supposed to take the car there), so it was quite crucial we not have any incidents! Second, our beloved satellite navigation system ends at the German border. And third, it snowed most of the time.
But I'm happy to report we got in and out with no problems and it was an interesting and enjoyable day out. Here's a little photo summary of our journey.
After our full investigation of Nemanice, we decided to drive a little further to see more of the Czech Republic.
An unusual church somewhere on the way to Plzen
We had some thoughts of going to Plzen (Pilsen), the nearest major city. It's the home of Pilsner beer and a couple notable churches and a synagogue listed on my website. But in the end we decided the weather was just too unpleasant for sightseeing and a crowded city would increase our chances at a non-insured incident with the car. So we ended up driving about 45 minutes almost to Pilsen, then turning off onto the freeway to head back to Germany.
Today the weather continues to be nasty (snow, cold wind) so we have spent pretty much all day in our hotel room, getting some things done, watching some TV, and just giving our feet a rare day of rest. It's been fabulous. Our big outing was a walk across the street to the mall for a lunch at Subway (the rest of the shops are closed for Good Friday), and we got to visit a bunch of real bunnies! They are in a large and carefully protected cage in the center of the mall for Easter.
Tomorrow, we head to Augsburg for three nights. That will be our last stop in Germany before we head south for new cultures, new languages, and hopefully new weather!