European Focus

Lorch Monastery, Germany

jim — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:23:00 +0000

May 17 Entrance to the ancient cemetery, storm clouds building to the west.

The Origin of the Crucifix

jim — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:50:02 +0000

May 17 On tour with genealogist Margaret Weiler in the Schwaebische Alb of Germany, we learned yesterday something very interesting from the former pastor of a very old church in the town of Heiningen. “Crucifixes were developed in Spain at the end of the 14th century to remind people of the hideous treatment of Jesus [...]

A Visit to Dettingen unter Teck, Germany

jim — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:13:00 +0000

May 16 By Margie Weiler This is my 4th tour with James Derheim, who has taken me to many ancestral villages, both mine and my husband Bill’s, in many south and western areas of Germany and the Zurich area of Switzerland. I always have had a wonderful time seeing for myself where these ancestors lived [...]

Germany’s Pick Your Own Flower Patches

jim — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:11:51 +0000

May 15 You see them everywhere in Germany, these bright fields of flowers full of seasonal blooms, there for the picking and usually conveniently located along a busy road and perfect for the person who wants to liven up their homecoming with some fresh flowers. The best thing is – the price is right. [...]

Oberwaelden – a village with more than 850 years of history

jim — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:02:20 +0000

May 12 We are on the trail of ancestors with genealogist Margie Weiler in the area around Goeppingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. One of the highlights of Sunday was a visit to the hilltop hamlet of Oberwaelden. The church there, St. Nikolaus (built pre-Reformation in the early 1400s) [...]

On the Trail of Emperors and Ancestors in Hohenstauffen, Germany

jim — Sun, 12 May 2013 07:27:21 +0000

May 12 Margie Weiler is on a quest. She has more than 20 ancestral villages and churches she wants to visit in a space of eight days. Can it be done? Absolutely, with careful planning and with cooperation from Mother Nature, as the trip hinges around the photography of places where her husband’s ancestors lived [...]

The Bratwurst Kitchen in Regensburg

jim — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:35:10 +0000

May 9 Recent lunch with clients at the Bratwurst Kitchen built to feed the workers who were constructing the nearby stone bridge over the Donau. The kitchen has been in existence for more than 600 years. And the brats and kraut are still as good today as they were then.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Final Stand in Germany

jim — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:23:14 +0000

May 8 We just finished one of our most interesting tours of our career. Two good friends, Dan and Roy, spent nearly two weeks with Jenean and James Derheim following the life and times of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed by the SS at the Flossenbuerg Concentration Camp in early April, 1945 just ten [...]

The Church of St. Margaret in Wahlhausen, Germany

jim — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:56:04 +0000

April 29 The little church in the riverside village of Wahlhausen, Thuringen, Germany is a testament to what a lack of heating can do to preserve art. The Church of St. Margaret was built on the bank of the Werra River in 1718 through donations by the local ruling family, the von Hansteins, who [...]

Hasselbach and Allendorf Ancestral Discoveries

jim — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:19:30 +0000

April 22 and 23 Dennis Jenkins from Grand Junction, Colorado wanted to find out more about his ancestral ties to the hamlet of Hasselbach near Weilburg, Hessen, Germany. Dennis takes the record for waiting the longest between first learning about European Focus Private Tours (1998) to actually stepping off the plane to begin his personal [...]