Weekend with Wolfgang

This weekend I am spending in Koeln with Wolfgang, the long lost relative that I managed to find while I was living in Bonn.  Today, we went to Minkelfeld and the surrounding area to connect with some other "relatives".  I use this term loosely because while we all do share a common ancestor, the ancestor is typically back five or six generations.  

I arrived at the train station near Wolfgang's house at 8:55 and he picked me up at nine.  We went back to the house and had breakfast with Wolfgang's wife Ulla before Wolfgang and I packed into his car and headed out on our journey.

The first stop of the day was Minkelfeld where we met up with Klaus, the first Esch in Germany that I met.  We spent a good amount of time at Klaus's as he and Wolfgang went through piles of papers with names an dates and argues over who was who.  It was really fun to get to watch them because they both get so excited and speak in such fast dialectic German when they are together.  It is really difficult to understand, but it is really cool too.  

After visiting with Klaus Wolfgang and I drove to Maifeld to visit the church there.  Unfortunately, the church grounds are currently being renovated so everything was in a disarray.  

Then we headed back to Minkelfeld where we picked up Klaus, and by picked up I mean he drove his own car but followed us to Kalt.  In Kalt we had a "Kaffee und Kuchen"  or "Coffee and Cake" date with the mayor.  Apparently the mayor is also related to the Esch's in some distant way.  It was really fun to be at this little gathering.  Everyone kept sharing stories, with Klaus being the most animated story-teller.  

After our mid-afternoon snack we went to the first Esch farm that was the largest German farm when it was taken over by Esch's in the 1500's.  It is still owned by Esch's today.  Lots of the buildings still have original parts as well.  Franz Josef Esch is the current owner of the property and we were able to figure out exactly where he fits into the family tree while we were there.  

After visiting with Franz and his wife we began our trek back to Koeln.  On the way we stopped at a couple of cemetaries to take pictures of Esch gravestones.  At the cemetary in Kerben, we were looked at suspiciously because no one recognized us.  Wolfgang proceeded to explain that we were here to look at the Esch grave and the person he was talking to promptly asked if he was the relative researcher.  It was hilarious.  And it turns out that this guy is related to us in some way as well.  

It was really cool day getting to go around to the places my family has lived, to see what they do, and what their lives have been like for the past several centuries.