We arrived at his house (that was originally built for the English soldiers who occupied Germany after WWII) and I met his wife Ola. We watched a bit of the news and then got to work trying to figure out where my family fits into the mess that is the Esch Family Tree. After half an hour of searching through lists of names and dates we came across a Peter who was the son of a Johann who had no family. We cross checked the names of the wifes with the information that I had, and by-golly it all fit together. There was a lot of loud and fast German at this point in time, and we were both really really excited.
His wife then interrupted our work with a wonderful dinner of rice, meat with some sauce, and a salad. It was so wonderful to eat real food with real people. We spent a lot of time over dinner talking about America, they ad lots of questionf for me which I did my best to answer, but I could tell they weren't always satisfied.
Post dinner we began putting in the information for the ancestors that connect the family tree to me. I have some more work to do, I need to get specific dates and sibling names, but it is really cool to see the way the names all fit together.
After we finished entering our names, he showed me the books that he got all of the other names out of. There are literally books of Esch. It is incredible. Most of the records in Germany were destroyed during the Thirty Years War but the Eschs srvived. Not only are there names of people, there are dates, spouses, churchs where they were married, the land they owned, how much corn they produced on that land. Unbelievable.
Wolfgang gave me a copy of the original deed to one of the farms. Unfortunately, it is not clear and it is written in old German script so I can't even come close to reading it. He also gave me a really cool map of the way Minkelfeld was originally divided and the different farms there. I also got a copy of our family crest. Yeah, that's right, I have a family crest. It was a great night, I loved learning so much about my family. I am planning on visiting again. Wolfgang has said that if I can spend a couple of days there we will go to Minkelfeld, Kalt, and Kuettig and follow the movements of the Esch's through history. I can't wait.
I wouldn't have ever even thought about undertaking this adventure if it weren't for my Grandad. He told me right before I left for Germany about Minkelfeld and that I should find it because our ancestors came from there. It really kind of sounded like a pain in the neck, traveling to some tiny town, that doesn't have a train station to take some pictures with a sign. But I wanted to do something for him, and what I thought was going to be a futile attempt to connect with the past has turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. I only wish that he was here to experience it with me.
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