Vrsac, Friday, May 28

We were on the bus at 8:30, got some gas, and on the road by 9. First stop was Sigmundsfeld. There is no church there, but we had some minor successes in the cemetery. Then it was on to Lazarfeld. Again, no church, but we found a few people of interest in the cemetery. At Klek, there was again no church. Stasa was of the belief that the old Catholic cemetery was in an impenetrable bush. On questioning one of the locals, however, we were eventually able to locate it. There is not much to see. The bush is very nearly impenetrable and, when you get there, there are only a couple of headstones and a few unidentifiable family crypts that are accessible. I suppose with a week of effort and a chain saw, you could find a lot more, but that is a trip for another day.

We received a pleasant surprise in Kathreinfeld. We have been there twice before and both times the bush was virtually impenetrable. This time, there had been substantial clearing. It was still pretty rough, but at least ou could get in. A man from the local village council had a conversation with Stasa. He seemed really sincere in wanting to do a better job, but made clear that they couldn’t commit a lot of resources to maintaining a cemetery for a bunch of strangers. I suppose you could argue that those strangers have already paid a high price and built the town the current residents live in, but their viewpoint is from the here and now. We had lunch across from the cemetery and moved on to Sartscha. Once again ther was no church. One of the locals told us that the old cemetery was beside the new one, but there was nothing there. We checked it out anyway. At the back of the Serbian cemetery is a network of old cement sidewalks, but there are no headstones.

At Ernsthausen, we again did better than expected. We had been here before also and recalled only a few headstones, most of them bulldozed to the edge of the slough. However, a close inspection turned up more than a dozen stones, including some from the Rollinger family that Bob is researching. That was a pleasant surprise.

At Setschan, I was initially disappointed that a part of the cemetery that I thought had old stones had been removed. But, as we worked our way through, we found that other areas had far more than we expected. Lee and Bob both found quite a few stones with names they were researching.

From Setschan, we drove on to Vrsac and arrived right on schedule at 5 pm. After checking in, most of us went to a wine tasting at the Kristov winery in nearby Veliko Srediste. We had been there four years ago and had a great time. This year the price was quite a bit steeper, but we got a lot more for our money too. Instead of just snacks, it was a full meal with wonderful ghoulash, chicken, sausage, bacon, bread, and very good coleslaw. Betty guessed one of the varieties of wine and received a diploma in a humourous ceremony.
We only got back to the hotel at 9:15, pushing our morning start back to 8:15.

Weather was very warm today. 25+ degrees C. About 80 degrees F. But it felt much warmer with the sun and humidity. It was mostly sunny all day, although clouds were building in the afternoon and we heard some thunder in Setschan about 4 pm.

Our hotel is OK. Smelled a bit stuffy and musty when we check in, but is much better now after having the window open and fan on all evening.

Zrenjanin, Thursday, May 27

Ray and I could not get the hot water in our shower to work this morning. That will wake you up! It was a hot water on demand unit, but we could not get it to turn on. We told them at the front desk and later it was working, so maybe a breaker was off. Also, the room was quite warm last night. We stared at the air conditioner for the longest time and searched for a thermostat, to no avail. In the morning someone reminded us that it works by a remote control. Sure enough there it was. Too late now.

We got away at 10, already two hours late and hoping to make up some time somewhere. First stop was Rudolfsgnad, site of one of the four main post-war internment camps. We first stopped at the dyke that protects the town from the Theiss River. We planned to cross the dyke and walk down to the river bank. Not this year! There was at least five feet of water at the foot of the dyke. And the flood plain extends at least 100 metres to the river bank.

At this site on our last trip, we had met a resident who offered to kill a goat for us and have us stay for supper. We had taken some pictures and some had promised to send him copies. We made a special delivery instead.

A few of the group who have been here before elected to remain at the cemetery while the rest of us went on to the memorial to those who died in the camp. Then we went back for a look at the cemetery and the memorial there.

From there it was on to Elisenheim for a look at the church and on to Etschka for a tour of the impressive church there. Next stop was Molidorf. This was a real adventure!

Molidorf was another of the four main internment camps. After the war, Bosnians were settled there, but a flood ruined the mud walled homes and the site was abandoned to crumble away. All that remains is a square of wooded ground with mounds of dirt where the houses stood and a few cemetery headstones. Mark Remsing and a few others have led a movement to recently erect a monument on the site. That was our destination. But there is no road, so, unless the weather has been dry, the site is accessed by hiring the nearby farmer to take you out there in his wagon. It was far from dry, so that is where our adventure began.

As we rode along at a snail’s pace in the bouncing wagon, we saw that there were very deep tire tracks where tractors had previously driven. Most were somewhat dried out, but there were still many places where it was muddy with standing water. Our driver avoided them as much as possible, but every once in a while we were forced to plough through one of these mud holes. Several times we didn’t think we were going to make it, but he always managed to pull us through. On one especially exciting occasion, one side of the trailer had firmer ground than the other. As the trailer tilted about 30 to 40 degrees, we were sure we were going to be pitched into the mud hole, but we pulled through onto firmer ground just in time. Thankfully he avoided that spot on the way back!

We had planned a late lunch with the farmer’s wife, but it was already 5 pm by the time we returned from our brush with the mud hole. Fortunately she fed us enough for a whole day. There was home made schnapps (he is a registered producer) to start, followed by soup, platters of chicken, venison, pork, and potatoes, a very tasty zucchini dish, home made bread, and beer. Country cooking at its best!

From there we went on to a few more villages. Fortunately for our timetable, but unfortunately for the success of the tour, there was not much to see in these villages. They were mostly bonus stops, without that much importance to most, but still, it wsa disappointing that there was nothing there to see. At Deutsch Zerne, the church was still standing, but Stasa said it was not in use, near collapse, and unsafe to enter. He said the cemetery is badly overgrown. At Heufeld/Mastort, the locals said that the Serb cemetery is in the location of the former German one and there are no German graves remaining. There is no longer a church there. At St. Hubert/Charleville/Seultour there is no church or cemetery either. We wrapped it up there, as it was starting to get dark, and returned to Zrenjanin for the night, arriving about 9:30. This means an 8:30 start tomorrow.

We have stayed at the hotel here before and it is very nice. Weather was fine all day: sunny and hot with a temperature of 30+ degrees C (85+ degrees F). There were thunder storms on the horizon as we returned and one hit while we were in the hotel.

Novi Sad, Wednesday, May 26

We got off to a slow start today. The GPS insisted that we cross the Danube over a bridge that was closed for repair, but we knew our destination was on the same side as we were, so ew turned back to find our own way to the road we wanted as identified on the map. We ran smack into a Budapest traffic jam. It took us half an hour to go about four blocks and an hour and a half to get out of the city. I thought we would do pretty well leaving the downtown when everyone else was entering. So much for that theory.

Ray had arranged to meet Zoltan, a young man who is trying to keep alive the history and culture of the German population of Mezofalva. He gave us a tour of the church and cemetery and we were again on our way.

Our next stop was in Bataszek, where we had arranged to meet Laszlo Rudolf for lunch. Laszlo is the gentleman responsible for gathering all the church records in our collection. He was quite pleased to see us and took us to a nearby restaurant for a feast. His idea of lunch was a little bigger than ours! It was a real pleasure to visit with him again. He presented us with a couple of books for our library.

Then, it was on to the border. I had hoped for a quick crossing to make up some time, but it was not to be. We were about 15 minutes exiting Hungary and another 30 entering Serbia. Not bad, but not as good as I had hoped. We met Stasa, our guide in Serbia, quickly slashed a couple of the “bonus” stops from our itinerary, and drove on to Apatin.

Apatin was the main landing site for the Germans who came down the Danube to settle the Batschka area, immediately west of Banat. Many Banaters also came through there. Stasa’s friend Boris, a passionate local history buff, led our tour here. He took us to a couple of churches and the river bank where the settlers landed. Unfortunately, the original settlement site is now submerged in the river. Boris also took us to the home of the Adam Berents Society, of which he is an active member. Adam Berentz was a Catholic priest who led political opposition to the Nazi Party and later the Communist Party in the area. The Society is dedicated to his memory and to accumulating as much Donauschwaben history from the area as possible. They have a large collection of old books, many from the 1700s, and a couple dating even to the late 1600s. They have also gathered many old church documents, such as letters and diaries, which give a glimpse into the lives of the pioneers.

Stasa had arranged a dinner for us at a very nice restaurant on the Danube. When we first met him we asked if it was possible to back out, due to our large lunch. The restaurant had already committed significant resources to us, so we kept our date and were treated to our second feast of the day.

We made one last stop at a home built around the turn of the last century. A local family had recently purchased from the original family and is trying to restore it to its previous grandeur. Many of the furnishings are original and there are numerous artifacts and tools from more than one hundred years ago. They tried to offer us coffee and cookies, but we were way too stuffed and way to late to accept their hospitality. We finally rolled into Novi Sad about 10:30 and were checking in to the hotel about 10:45, only 2.5 hours behind schedule. That will give us a problem tomorrow, as Johannes has to have an eleven hour stop, meaning departure will be at 9:45.

The hotel is very nice. It is on the second floor of a downtown shopping mall and looks like it was fairly recently converted to this use.

Weather was great today. Warm and mostly sunny.

Budapest, Tuesday, May 25

The day started ominously but finished with a bang. We awoke to overcast skies and the sound of lightning and rain. But, by the time we had breakfast, checked out, and loaded the bus, the sun was beginning to break through occasionally. The rest of the day was mostly sunny and warm until evening, when we encountered a heavy thunderstorm, including hail, on our way to Pilisvorosvar. Even before this, the fields were all very wet with lots of standing water. From what we here, it has been raining regularly here for weeks.

Lee had been feeling low for the last couple of days and thought she needed some help, so we stopped at a pharmacy on the way out of town. We took a wrong turn almost immediately and worked our way back to our intended route by using some side roads, including about 5 km on one gravel cart path that had some of the group pretty worried about getting stuck. But, it was packed hard and was not much of a problem except that we had to go pretty slowly due to all the potholes and puddles. We finally got back to the main road, drove less than 5 km and encountered a long detour. We finally reached our first stop almost one and a half hours late.

The first few stops were for Frank at Mor, Pusztavam, and Csakbereny. Fortunately, Frank did not really expect to find anything genealogically important and I had allowed a fair bit of time, so we were able to view the churches and drive through the towns and make up enough time to make our noon appointment.

At noon, we met Istvan Back, an old friend that we met on our first rip. He had arranged to have the church opened in Kozma, a village of interest for Mary Ann. He boarded our bus and we drove to Kozma where we found the home of the lady with the key. She opened the church and demonstrated its renowned acoustics by giving a brief a capella singing performance. It was very special. Some of us also climbed the hill behind the village for a for a most pleasing view of the countryside.

After dropping off Istvan, we went on to Szar, where Betty had arranged a meeting. On our 2008 tour we had planned to attend Mass here, but arrived late. We were all standing in the entrance when the service ended. Maria (Hasenfratz) Macher introduced herself and was surprised to learn that we had come from North America to visit her village. Betty corresponded with her through translation (She speaks German, but not English.), leading to further correspondence with the Mayor, Eva Garon, who is quite fluent in English. We were to meet them and view the church books. Mayor Eva told us that we would go to the parish house (sort of like a church hall, but in a house, not a gymnasium) for some coffee and cookies. The house and church are 250 years old. Mayor Eva hinted at something bigger going on by saying that she did not know the details, but that Maria had planned something. A few other ladies followed us as we were ushered into a large meeting room where we were served coffee, wine, and cookies.

Soon, other people started arriving, two or three at a time. Before long the room was packed with Hasenfratzes! Betty was beside herself with excitement and the rest of us weren’t far behind. It was a magical moment that you had to experience to appreciate. Although we couldn’t communicate, you could feel the love in the room. We spent over an hour celebrating friendship and family.

Reluctantly, we set off for Budapest because Betty had arranged another meeting for the evening. We dropped about half the group off at the hotel because it was already about 6 pm, and the rest of us carried on to the meeting.

Betty had emailed the Pilisvorosvar Mayor’s office and been referred to Zsusanna Krupp, who has excellent English and has been helping Betty via email. Zsusanna took us to meet the Mayor, Istvan Gromon. The two of them spent about an hour with us, trying to understand and solve Betty’s genealogical problems. The Mayor made several phone calls to people he knew who might know something about the Hasenfratz genealogy. They told us that they frequently receive similar inquiries and try very hard to help people in search of their families. Finally, we went to a house that his mother has furnished with original artefacts as a hobby museum. It was quite a collection, but we could not take the time to enjoy it fully as it was nearing 8:30 pm. We finally arrived at the hotel at about 9. We had hoped to depart at 7:30 tomorrow, but Johannes must rest for eleven hours by law, so it will be 8:00 again.

Our hotel is very nice again. The bedroom is separate from a sitting room with a fold out bed. Miles and I have a HUGE balcony. It sounds like the rooms of the others are equally nice, but I don’t think anyone can touch our balcony.

Gyor, Monday, May 24

Today was short on events, but long on execution. We began with a tour of the Haus der Donauschwaben in Bayern, a Munich version of the one in Sindelfingen. This museum has a much smaller library but far more artefacts. We received a guided tour in German, translated by Johannes. Our guide, the director of the place, was very passionate about keeping alive the memory of what happened to the Donauschwaben after the War. Translation was not really that necessary, as the pictures and artefacts spoke for them selves. This place is well worth a tour if you are in the Munich area, but the hours are limited and a translator is helpful.

We were joined there by Helmut Birg and Josef Lang. Helmut is the gentleman who worked with Ray on the Georgshausen book and who we missed at the Hofbrauhaus last night. It was good to be able to spend a little more time with him. He is an interesting man with many stories to tell. Josef Lang collaborated with Marta Istvan on a picture book about all the Donauschwaben monuments in the former Yugoslavia. He also has many stories to tell about the horrors of those post-war days. Several of us purchased the book and I picked one up for our library.

We left the museum just before noon and spent the rest of the day on the road, arriving at our hotel in Hungary about 7:30. We ate dinner on the patio, fighting off mosquitoes. This is our third time at this hotel on three tours. It is composed of two or three buildings stitched together, with lots of flights of three to seven or eight stairs. It is a bit of a challenge getting around, but it is so quaint that people seem to be able to overlook the inconvenience for the experience.

Munich, Sunday, May 23

Today was the main day of the Treffen, or meeting, in Ulm. It is held in four large aircraft hangar sized halls. One holds a Mass in the morning and a cultural program in the afternoon. The other three are for people to meet and greet. In the entrance foyer there are several displays of books, maps, and other souvenirs for sale.

In the meet and greet, each Romanian village has a few tables allocated to it, depending on the size of the village. People from the same village congregate at the same table and catch up with one another to exchange gossip. They also wander to other tables looking for people that they know from other villages. There were adjacent tables for Kanada and Amerika which we claimed as our own. Only one other North American, a man from Montreal, stopped by. A few Germans stopped by to ask if we knew Joe from Kokomo or some other friend or relative.

Several of the group immediately set up shop in this area. In the afternoon, Ray found a couple of English speaking people from Triebswetter and talked to them for an hour. This part of the Treffen is quite joyful as people who have not seen each other for some time renew acquaintances. It includes a brass band and dancing in the afternoon.

The rest of the group took in the Mass before rejoining the others. This event is not as joyful. The mood is solemn and melancholy as people remember their old homes and what they have left behind. While they are pleased and thankful to be in Germany, they still have an emotional attachment to their former homes that is apparent in the ceremony and in the fervour with which they sing the old songs.

The ceremony begins with a procession which includes flags and banners representing the villages and also small banners remembering deceased loved ones.

The Mass includes a singing, accordion playing priest, and concludes with another procession. A small brass band supplies the music.

The afternoon cultural program had a wide variety of acts, including modern dance, traditional dance, a skit from a Brazilian group about the difficulty of keeping their German language alive, and other skits about life in the old country.

We had to leave before the end of the program to make our planned visit to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. It was pretty quiet when we arrived, but it was really buzzing when we left. There was some kind of soccer excitement for the Munich team and the streets were full of people. We had planned to meet Helmut Birg there, but missed each other until we were just leaving. We made a quick contact and confirmed our meeting tomorrow at the Haus der Donauschwaben in Bayern.

Today was a beautiful day weatherwise. It was mostly sunny and nice and warm without being hot. Too bad we spent most of it inside. Except for Johannes, our driver, who got a bit of a sun burn reading outside while he was waiting for us.

Tonight’s hotel is very nice. The rooms are a little larger than most we have seen and are quite modern.

Ulm, Saturday, May 22

We were all meeting at 9:30 this morning to walk to the pedestrian area for the dancing, so we were all on our own for breakfast. With a couple of bakeries on every block serving a variety of food, it was not hard to find a place. Some of us made our way to the market in front of the cathedral. It had all kinds of fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses, baked goods, flowers, and bedding plants to take home and plant in your own garden. We didn’t get many of those.


Today was the beginning of the reason for this stop. The Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben (the umbrella group for the Romanian Germans) has a gathering here every two years. It begins with displays of traditional dancing in traditional costumes on the pedestrian mall. From there they proceed in a parade to the Mayor’s office, where they are greeted inside, then accompanied to the shore of the Danube by the Mayor for a commemoration of the departure of their ancestors down the Danube. This year was the 25th anniversary of the village of Neupanat. They had a special delegation costumed as the original pioneers. They also arranged to board a modern day facsimile of an Ulmer Schactel raft similar to the ones their ancestors sailed on. It added extra meaning to the commemoration. The people we spoke to said it was the first time they had seen this and many were quite moved by it.

This ended the formal program for the day, so most of us relaxed for a while at an outdoor café, soaking up the ambience, and some beer. We then had free time until meeting at 5 for supper nearby. Frank and Nora Ann met up with Frank’s cousin Erick and spent some time with him and his family. They also bumped into Frank's nephew Gord and his family. They had hoped to meet up, but it was kind of fluky how it all happened. Sounds like they all had a good time.

The weather was great today. It started overcast, but the sun soon broke through and by late morning, it was mostly sunny. By late afternoon it was pretty much clear. It was mild enough to get by without a jacket, maybe low 20s C, about 70 F

Our hotel here is pretty good. The rooms are not as spacious as Sindelfingen, but larger than some of the others. It is clean and modern and well kept. The staff has been very helpful whenever called upon.

Ulm, Friday, May 21 Laundry Day!

Frank and Nora Ann arrived late last night but were too tired to join us for breakfast and laundry. They were visiting a nephew and his family in France. They took a train to Bordeaux, flew to Amsterdam, then Frankfurt, and took another train to Ulm. I would have been tired too!


We gathered in the hotel lobby at 8:30 and wandered over to a nearby bakery/sandwich shop, and then several of us piled into the bus for our adventure at the German language coin laundry. Thank goodness for Johannes, our driver, who helped us figure things out. It will be about 10 days before we get another opportunity other than doing a couple of things each evening and hoping they will dry overnight.


We gathered again at noon, strolled over to the same sandwich shop for lunch, and then went on to the Donauschwaben Zentral Museum where we toured until mid afternoon.


From there, we made our way down to the bank of the Danube River and walked along the shore to the Donauschwaben monument. It was a short walk from there to the place where we planned to eat our evening meal. After showing everyone where the place was and the landmarks needed to return, we split up and went our separate ways. Some of the group did not get past a nearby café where they plopped down to rest their weary bones. Some of us went on to the cathedral, where Mary Ann and Miles paid to climb the 766 steps to the top. They say that the view was fabulous and they took lots of pictures. I will try to get some copies up in the next couple of days.


We all reconvened at the pfannkuchen restaurant, where virtually everything on the menu is served on a gigantic crepe. After eating way too much, we all returned to the hotel at about 7 pm and had free time for the evening. Several people went out exploring again.

Weather was pretty good today. Mild and mostly cloudy, but some sunny breaks and no rain.

Ulm, Thursday, May 20

Overcast and raining this morning, but it doesn’t matter because we are inside all day at the Haus der Donauschwaben. The Haus has a library and many displays of history and
culture. The AKdFF, the German research group for DS family history also rents space here and has its own collection of village Familienbuchs. Our group managed to stay pretty busy all day searching through all the various books. Here is part of our group hard at work and here we are with the lady in charge of the Haus, Frau Mojem. They were very hospitable to us, laying on a snack of fresh pretzels, chocolate, and drinks after our introductory tour and some cakes and coffee at lunch time.

When they closed at 4 pm, we drove on to Ulm where we will spend the next three days.

Sindelfingen, May 19, 2010

We began the day with a guided tour of Strasbourg. Yves, our guide provided a very entertaining and informative tour. We had never looked around Strasbourg on our previous tours, so it was quite a revelation. It is an important centre in the European Union, with many government buildings. It also has a very charming old town with several waterways.

From there we drove to Zuffenhausen, a suburb of Stuttgart to take some pictures for the Giroux twins in Vancouver. The autobahn to Sindelfingen runs right beside Zuffenhausen. Unfortunately, we were delayed by bridge construction when we crossed the Rhein River and were late for a planned meeting with Tony Mai. By the time we got there he was gone.

We arrived at our hotel by about 4 pm and prepared for a busy evening. Mary Ann had arranged to meet with Anni Lorenz, who had done some translation for her. Over dinner it emerged that she had the same maiden name as one of the names Bob, Sandy, and Shirley were researching. Another one of those serendipitous moments on the Banat tour! After this detour and an exchange of email addresses, Anni and Mary Ann spent the rest of the evening working on Mary Ann’s research.

Meanwhile, Ray had arranged to meet with Karl Hasenfratz, his son Robert, and Robert’s wife Maria and son Alex. Ray has been corresponding with Karl for a few years about their family links. They were excited to see what Ray has done with the family tree and the Georgshausen book.

Meanwhile, where there is a Hasenfratz, Betty won’t be far away. She was pleased to meet Karl and discuss where their family trees merged. Altogether, it was an entertaining and informative evening.

The weather today was again approaching 20 degrees C with a bit of a breeze. The morning had some sun, but the afternoon was mostly overcast with an occasional sprinkle of rain on the windshield.

The hotel rooms are the nicest so far – spacious, with a small sitting area and a bar fridge. The evening meal in the hotel restaurant was also very good, with several of us ordering traditional Swabian food.

Strasbourg - May 18

Today we visited seven villages in the Lorraine area of France. Although we did not have any “Eureka moments,” everyone was excited to see the home villages of their ancestors from 250 years ago. You hope for the magic of finding your name, but sometimes, after 250 years, it doesn’t happen.


Our first targets were three villages for Ray – Nebing, Molring, and Guinzeling. Next we visited four villages for Bob, Shirley, and Sandy – Bebing, Xouaxange, Gondrexange, and Diane-Capelle. Here is our group (l to r): Betty and Trevor, Kathleen, Sandy, Bob, Pat, Shirley, Lee, Miles, Mary Ann, Glenn, and Ray.


See, there really is a village named Xouaxange!

The countryside was very pretty. The fields were already a lush green, with many large clumps of darker green trees joining them on the rolling landscape. Occasionally a splash of bright yellow marked a field of mustard or Canola or a blob of dull red roofs marked the location of a village.


Since the villages were small and the distance not great, we covered our ground quickly and arrived at our hotel in Strasbourg about 3:30. A few of the group wanted to take it easy, a few wanted to visit a nearby Chocolate Museum, and about half chose to go to the centre of the old town and wander around. The museum group joined us for supper, and Johannes, our driver, picked us up at 8:30 to return us to the hotel.

The weather dawned clear and sunny again, becoming partly cloudy as the day wore on. Temperature was about 20 C, but it was a bit cool with the breeze.

Most of the rooms we booked were advertised as twin rooms, but they really have a double bed and a cot. Lots of coin flipping going on. The rooms are quite a bit larger though. Hardly anyone in the hotel speaks English, so communication is a bit of a challenge. To enter, you first go down to an underground level, then climb back up to ground level for the first floor of rooms. There are two more floors above that. Not the best for Trevor with his prosthetic leg. This place is nice enough, but not really suitable for us.