Traveling in the Steps of my Ancestors

Rainer and Andrea invited us to their house for a traditional German breakfast at 9 AM. When we arrive there is a great spread of food on the table, and Andrea makes some medium boiled eggs that are the perfect set for me. They have a really cool spring-powered egg cracker that just cuts a ring on the top. They also bring out some homemade garlic salt that they give also us to take home.

To use the egg cracker you hold it on the egg, pull up on the top and let it smack back down. This cuts a perfect ring in the top of the egg. The top part flips open and holds salt.

All the food is very similar to what we've been eating all over Germany: sliced meats and cheeses, breads with jam, and so on. I try some rosehip jam on bread which was a unique and good taste. 

After breakfast Rainer shows me on his computer the program he uses for his family tree, as well as how I am related to some people I had met the day before.

We then get into our car and he navigates for Nate to show us the towns of my ancestors. We first go to Ebertshausen where we mainly check out the church and cemetery.

St. Margaretha Catholic Church was built in 1613. This is the church where many generations of my ancestors would have gone to worship, and been married in and baptized their children in.

Still a very old style door lock/knob/and hinges on the church door

We find a headstone in the adjacent cemetery for and Ankenbauer couple, but we are not sure exactly how they are related to us, maybe we'll be able to track that down someday.

Only a few miles away is a man-made lake called Ellertshäuser See, which is the largest lake in Lower Franconia. Rainer wants to take the kids there. As we are pulling into the parking area I see they have an electric charging station. Nate has wanted to see what the car is like if we charge it, so we figure out how to get the car plugged in and then let it charge while we go to the playground.

This playground has a unique water playground area with a wheel you can turn that will bring water up from the lake. It then splashes onto an area that drains back down toward the lake with a series of little dams you can use to block up the water. 

Kids love to play in water, so this is very entertaining to them and we stay at the park for about an hour before we move on.

When done we drive to Marktsteinach and get to see the house my 4th great grandfather George Ankenbauer lived in and worked as a blacksmith.

George Ankenbauer (1795-1852) married a girl whose family was from Marktsteinach. All of their children were born in that town. The family eventually moved to the town of Mechenried about 14 km away. But we did see that there are still people with the last name Götzendörfer in town. That was the maiden name of George Ankenbauer's wife Anna Margaretha, so they are probably related in some distant way.

We didn't go up into the church in Marksteinach, but their church St. Bartholomäus was built around 1615 like many of the churches around the area. This would have been where George and Anna Margaretha were married and where their children would have been baptized according to church records.

We then travel back to Rainer's house where some of his grandkids have come over to play with Landon and Kailey. Rainer takes Nate and I on a walk around the town and he tells us the history of the houses in Mechenried that are part of my family.

Some of the locations are where my ancestors had houses, but the lots are now empty, and some have homes that have been remodeled or updated since they would have lived in them. The older side of town is historical and the homes can't be torn down anymore, but they can be remodeled. I'm sure there are lots of restrictions about keeping the older timber frame or brick style. This can be very costly so some of the oldest buildings just sit empty.

It's important to note that the locations I'm pointing to on the old map below are not still family owned, so if you ever visit please respect the privacy of whoever lives there.

This 1847 map of Mechenried shows how the town looked when Adam Ankenbauer and his family lived there. The yellow spot on the map is the location of where Adam Ankenbauer lived before he sold everything and moved to America in 1865.

Adam Ankenbauer's house/location

This house is not all original, the stone foundation looks older than the red brick top, and the window frames seem to have been retro-fitted into the house where arch topped windows used to be.

This house is across the street (green dot) from where Adam used to live. Rainer said Ankenbauer's lived in this house in the past, but I don't remember which relative he said.

This house is the red dot. Rainer said it's the oldest house in town, but I don't know the age

The light blue dot is for this now empty lot that has been turned into a garden. There once stood a house here that was owned by George Ankenbauer who was the brother to Adam and Kaspar Ankenbauer and son to the George Ankenbauer that lived and worked in Marktsteinach.

This well is all that's left on the site of the home of Kaspar Ankenbauer (purple dot), who was the great great grandfather to Rainer

Rainer knows many people in town, and we met many of his friends along the way that he/we chatted with. Rainer had spoken to people who are in charge of the churches in town and they opened them up just for us to be able to go inside, which was very nice.

The pink dot is where their church is located. St. Nicholas's church.

 

A view of St. Nicholas from the other side where you can see the steeple on the church (left) and the gate tower on the right

The main church, St. Nicholas Catholic Church, is what you call a castle church. It used to have tall fortified walls, although they aren't as tall now. It had a gate tower where they could defend with archers and inside would have been a smaller church. Eventually the church was expanded several times to the current size and the defensive walls came down. The grounds around the church are a graveyard, however there are no headstones and no records of who is buried there. They found bones while doing excavating projects more then once.

These bones were recovered during an excavation at the site for a new out building. There is a good chance some of our ancestors are also buried around the church as they are in the death registry for the town but there are no headstones for them. George Ankenbauer, father of Adam, as well as his siblings and their families all lived and died in this town.

We were surprised at how ornate the church is considering how small the town is.

This is a wood carving representing the Church of the 14 Holy Helpers, and the Pilgrims carry this with them every year when they make their journey as they did yesterday.

I wasn't expecting to find a nice pipe organ in such a small town church

This is a statue of St. George, which is who Rainer said my great great grandpa George was in part named after.

There is also a small church across town by a newer cemetery, although that church is even older then the present St. Nicolas Church. Neither church has great construction records until the 16th century, however the pastor made a petition to Rome on behalf of this church called St. Peter back in 1485. The main alter is believed to be from around 1700.

We are sad to hear that someone had stolen the bell from the church, and even the front door at one point, although that has been replaced.

I love how the graves are done. You plant flowers instead of grass. It requires someone to come maintain it, but it is more cheerful. Rainer's grandparents grave is in there and has granite stone covering where you would plant flowers. Other family didn't want to maintain flowers and he had no say in it. They have troughs of water with watering cans you can use. We water the flowers on his parents grave while there.

Watering trough that can catch rainwater, or a faucet that can be used if needed.

Grave of Rainer's relatives

Rainer's parents grave that the family maintains by planting flowers and pulling weeds a couple times a year

There is a history book of Mechenried in the little church and Rainer says he will try get us one. Then the lady who is going to lock up the church came and gives us a copy which was very nice of her.

We then walk back to the house and order some pizza from a nearby town. Before it comes we quickly go take pictures by the Mechenried sign and by the time we get back, pizza is here.

Kailey gets a Hawaiian pizza, and Landon pepperoni. Rainer, Nate and I have ham, pepperoncini, mushroom and pepperoni and their granddaughter has tuna fish and onion! She's a pescatarian (only eats fish and vegetables).

Mateo didn't come to play today because he had a soccer game, which their team won. Sofia leaves after dinner to go watch the World Cup Germany game with her family.

We stay a while longer and visit and play some games. We show them how to play Draw & Guess on Amazon Luna and have fun doing a couple rounds. Playing the game in English is a slight issue sometimes for them.

We finally say our goodbyes. The kids are sad to leave and asking when we can come again. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but it was 100% success and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Rainer and Andrea have been great hosts! We say "Auf Wiedersehen" which means "until we meet again."

Getting into the hotel is easier today with direct access to the parking garage. Nate pays for discount parking downstairs while the kids and I head to the room.

We open up the hotel window for some fresh air and shortly afterwards we start hearing lots of people honking their car horns for 5-10 minutes, followed by banging sounds. We figure there must be a protest or something nearby (our hotel is right by the prison in town), but then realize Germany had won their world cup soccer game 7-1, and all the noise is people celebrating.

The booms we finally figure out are fireworks, but just as I get my phone to take a picture they are done. They had lasted around 15 minutes or so. They were only visible from the far side by the kids beds, as a building was blocking the view from the other window.

Time to get some rest!