Visit to Langenaubach and Breitscheid

The names of the villages of our German ancestors were passed down in family stories, and one of the Durrant cousins hired a researcher in Langenaubach to locate information. He shared the results with cousins in the Waupaca County area. His initial efforts made locating the correct microfilms much easier.

Films of church records from both Langenaubach and Breitscheid were available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and I also ordered those films at various Family History Centers where we lived or traveled. The old German handwriting was difficult to read at first, but the names and dates stood out in the films.

When we had an opportunity to travel to Germany in 2007, I emailed a contact that I had corresponded with regarding one of the family surnames. He connected me with his sister Rita, who still lived in Breitscheid. She was willing to host us for a day and made arrangements to visit the former church in Langenaubach (now a museum) and the church in Breitscheid. She also invited us for a "typical German lunch." 

700 year anniversary of Langenaubach; church/museum 

Rita contacted the museum director in Langenaubach who met us for a tour. Unfortunately, we had no time to use the volumes of information that the museum held. The building was lovely and well preserved. 

Church in Breitscheid

The church in Breitscheid was restored; the frescoes behind the altar were discovered during the process. Rita asked the pastor to meet us there and we learned that three villages attended services in Breitscheid. This explained how a man from a nearby village married into the family.


Some of the members of the Schmitt family from Breitscheid (the female line in our ancestry) were potters, and the museum in that village had paintings of the pottery from that time.

Our final stop of the day was at the home of the "village historian" who had prepared charts and information about the Schmitt family. The big surprise of the visit: Hans Henn and I were cousins!

Learning I was visiting a cousin!

*52 Ancestors: "Road Trip"

Edwin Leuthold's Diary

Marianne shared a translated copy of the diary kept by Edwin Leuthold (1858-1942) during a two-year visit to the United States. It is extremely valuable to a family historian because he relates many details about his journey from Oberrieden via Basel, Paris, Havre and New York.

His father and sister traveled with him by steamboat to Zurich and then by train to Basel where he deposited his "handluggage" at the immigration agency. They toured the city, returning for the luggage before the 5 p.m. train to Paris. That journey took Edwin from Basel via Porrentruit to Delle, where he crossed the French border. 

Edwin arrived in Paris at 11:00 in the morning and was able to spend the rest of the day touring the city. At 9:00 p.m. fourteen people were driven to the station where they took another train to Havre--arriving the next morning. They were able to watch the "Hammonia" arrive; they boarded later in the evening of July 28, 1886.

He thoroughly describes the voyage, including the ship, its sleeping quarters, meals, the weather, sea sickness, fellow passengers and the process of arriving in Hoboken on August 7, where they had to open luggage for customs officers. After inspection they took a small river steamer across to Castle Garden where immigrants' information was recorded.

The funeral of General Ulysses Grant was taking place the day of their arrival and Edwin describes the street decorations and the parade, which included a large military formation at the end. He also mentions that the Brooklyn Bridge had been completed four years earlier and they paid 2 cents to walk across.

The "emigrant's train" cost $1 to travel from New York to Nevada, Ohio (his first destination), but he could have gone to Chicago for the same fare. Edwin visited and worked on farms of acquaintances from Switzerland in Wyandot County, Ohio, Livingston County, Illinois and Nemaha County, Kansas. He also visited friends in Chicago, Illinois, before finally arriving at the Leuthold farm in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. He mentions many names of Swiss immigrants who had agreed to host him and describes the work at each of the farms.

After spending 1887 with J. H. Leuthold, Edwin left in December for California, providing a detailed story of that train trip. He worked in Napa for two months before receiving a message that his father was very ill. He left immediately to return to Switzerland, intending to return to America. However, his father had recovered during Edwin's return voyage and convinced him to stay in Oberreiden to run the family sawmill.


*52 Ancestors: "Adventure"

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I have been participating occasionally in a writing challenge initiated by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow. She provides a "prompt" each week to encourage followers to write about their ancestors. The posts from 2019 on my blog all refer to one of those prompts. Since I call myself an "occasional" participant, my responses to the prompts are not necessarily in the order they were suggested. 

Since I've been able to post twice as many writings this year as in the past three, the challenge has worked for me!

I will indicate the prompt I used for each post.