Search for your ancestors in Hamburg on a tour to "The Worlds of Our
Fathers". The portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch and the response of
emigration to the United States will be the major focus of this 11-day
journey with an experienced historian, provided by Matterhorn Travel in
2009.

Visit:

http://www.matterhorntravel.com/2008/World_Fathers/world_fathers.htm

Dear friends of Germany, 

Don't miss it - the annual Otoberfest in Munich is coming up soon. The
Oktoberfest is the biggest public fair and festivity in the world. In
2008, the Oktoberfest celebrates its 175th anniversary - from September
20th until October 5th. Become part of this great event and Travel to
Germany!

The German American Connection offers a special "Oktoberfest Trip" for
small groups. This tour starts in Bavaria and takes you to Thuringia and
Saxony - the cradles of German culture and history! At that time of the
year, very many colorful and lively festivities will be taking place in
almost every town - to celebrate the end of harvest season. It's like a
big public Thanksgiving feast. Come and enjoy Germany in fall! 

It's a little bit further ahead, but best to start planning now:
Nostalgic Christmas markets will be awaiting you in Germany for the
Advent season. We offer an unique "German Christmas Market Tour" for
small groups. This tour takes you to Berlin & Eastern Germany, where you
find some of the most beautiful and romantic Christmas markets. We will
visit hidden treasures in the rural regions of Thuringia and Saxony as
well as popular places like Berlin, Potsdam and Dresden. By the way, in
Dresden you will visit the Germany's oldest Christmas market(established
in 1434) with the tallest Christmas pyramid in the world! Come and enjoy
the German advent season! 

Have a look at our tours to Germany: http://www.tgac-us.com/

We are 4 women ages 93, 80, 69 & 62. We visited Europe in May of 2007, 16 years after our original trip to Europe. Our trip lasted 17 days, visiting 3 countries, 5 days each. We visited Slovakia, Poland and Germany. We are all daughters of immigrants. We have been doing family history for many years but decided we would try to visit not only the towns but to see inside every church connected with our family. We also intended to extend our knowledge of family connections by going to archives, town and city halls and Heimat museums.
We originally visited the website of the German National Tourist Office, found Dr. Wolfgang Grams’ name, and contacted him for information regarding family history personalized tours for the German portion of our trip. After corresponding with him, we engaged the services of his company Routes to Roots.

We contacted Dr. Grams and made arrangements to meet with our guide, Mr. Torsten Iversen, in Pasewalk Germany to begin our journey through our family history. We were specifically interested in Strasbury/Uckermark, the city of Prenzlau, the outdoor museum in Mecklenburg, near the city of Schwerin, the city of Hamburg and the town of Bergedorf just outside of Hamburg. We started our trip by visiting the church in Strasburg and the Heimat museum where our grandmother’s family was from. Torsten, our guide, arranged for us to meet the retired pastor of the church, Pastor Reidel, for a walking tour of the city.

The next day we visited Prenzlau to see the city archives for a look at the city directories and photos of houses at specific addresses as they were in the past. Lastly our guide, Torsten, took us to the city hall. Although we arrived on a day when the bureau of vital records was not open to the public he asked that since we had come such a long way, could we not speak to the person in charge. Permission was given and we met in her office. Torsten explained who we were and that we were looking for records regarding our family. We supplied the information that we had (the names of our grandparents) and asked her to try to find their marriage record. She was not able to locate the record. Then our guide asked her to check for birth records and she found 7 birth records from 1890 through 1896 as well as the corresponding death records. After checking with the clerk at city hall in Strasburg, she was also able to locate the marriage record we were looking for. That record not only gave us the name of our grandfather’s parents but also where to look for additional information regarding his family. The kindness of the lady in the vital records office in taking the time to see us and to look for our records is something that we will remember for a long time.

We saw the church where our grandparents were married in Prenzlau as well as some streets where they might have lived. As our guide, Torsten, not only showed us the church and the town but he also took the time when we returned to the hotel to translate part of the records that same evening and night (until 3 a.m.!) so if we had additional questions at that time he would be able to answer some of those questions. He stated at that time he never has had clients who found so many records at one time. We found 15 records in total from the city hall, 5 records in the archive. He also is/was in contact with the church archivist in Strasburg on our behalf and has received 7 different records regarding our grandmother’s family.

Mecklenburg’s outdoor museum and the city tour of Hamburg shows us both sides of our heritage as our family emigrated from Stettin, a big city, but came from smaller places in earlier times. In addition, Hamburg was the port from which they travel to America.

We enjoyed our stay in Germany; our guide Torsten was terrific. We would recommend his services to anyone. He is interest in showing you Germany and in helping you fulfill your hopes and desires regarding your family history.

Everyone we met in Germany was extremely gracious and kind to us. This was the trip of a lifetime.

Olga, Maxine, Diane and Gertrude

By Marian Betancourt

The first thing that struck me about northern Germany was how tall the people are. As a six-footer, I felt right at home. Centuries back, these northerners must have mixed it up with their long-boned Viking neighbors. This was my first visit to Germany and on the Fourth of July I had the privilege of attending the opening day ceremonies of Emigrant World Ballinstadt in Hamburg Harbor. Sitting with others under a giant white tent, I listened to very moving talks about the impact of the 19th and 20th century emigration to America. My own ancestors, including a German great-great grandfather, emigrated to New York City where I still live. While there were no fireworks at this July Fourth celebration, the sun did burst through for the occasion after several days of rain.

This day was the culmination of a week exploring northern Germany including the earlier Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, which had just won first prize as Europe’s best museum for 2007. Our small group traveled in a small bus limited to a reasonable speed on the limitless autobahns. Cars speeding by in the left lane at 100 or more miles an hour made me shudder (literally). Less scary is Germany’s clean and efficient mass transit system. You can get on buses or subways without waiting on a line to pay your fare. The honor system works until an inspector asks for your pass. If you don’t have it, well, off you go. In Bremen, where bicycles have the right of way, the entire population seems to commute on two wheels.

As a foodie, I was delighted that my visit coincided with the young herring season in the North Sea and I tasted these delicious “maatjes” every day. But it was the potatoes that made me swoon in ecstasy. They are so flavorful and buttery, unlike anything I had ever tasted, I knew I would only find them in Germany. Just as good wine depends on “terroir,” so it is for German potatoes.

My room at Le Royal Meridian in Hamburg, a newly renovated design hotel, had a walk-in shower with so many water jets that I took as many showers a day as time allowed, knowing that soon I would return home to a very ordinary shower. In the hotel restaurant overlooking Lake Alster, I watched the early morning rowers and sailors while enjoying freshly brewed tea (from a wide selection) with breakfast.

The big marketplaces (marketplatz) in the towns are where you will find vendors offering food, flowers, and goods of all kinds. For example, in Wismar, formerly part of East Germany, a vendor was selling black handbags with a decidedly Eastern style. In Hamburg, long picnic tables were set with checkered or flowered tablecloths allowing visitors to sit and enjoy a bratwurst and a beer. On the next street, high fashion designer stores serve an international clientele. At the head of each marketplatz is a centuries-old town hall where civic and social activities are still carried out.

While we drove along the North Sea coast (in the slow lane) toward the Netherlands, I was mesmerized by the landscape—flat grassland, a clump of trees here, a little group of cows there, and those fabulous puffy clouds over head. (Once again, the sun came out at just the right time.) I was in one of those wonderful landscape paintings from the time of Rembrandt only 400 years later. And it gets better. In Emden we stopped for some East Frisian tea and learned that the traditional tea ceremony relates to the clouds. You add drops of clotted cream into your tea cup—but don’t stir—just watch the drops melt into the tea and recreate the shape of the clouds. Now, how cool is that! (In Emden’s lovely art museum, the Kunsthalle, you can see a contemporary painting of those clouds.)

In Lubeck I fell in love with Thomas Mann. The Buddenbrooks museum is a replica of the house where Mann’s grandparents lived and which inspired him at age 25 to write his first novel, which became a best-seller. I had known about this Nobel prize-winning author, but when I got home not only did I read Buddenbrooks (and couldn’t put it down), I rented the entire 11-episode German TV series of the same name that was filmed in the areas I had just visited. This multi-generational saga of the merchant class in northern Germany is packed with history and drama. Mann also described everything people ate, which to a foodie like me, is nirvana.

This is only a fraction of the pleasure of my trip. I came home wanting more; not only more of the north, but all the rest of Germany.

Thousands of Americans travel to Germany every year in search of their roots. Are you among
them? Have you ever visited the places your ancestors left to emigrate to the US – or are you
planning to? Heritage travel is as much about learning about the past as it is about shaping the
present and the future. It’s about meeting people and places that are alive today, and enjoying
them together, and that’s what we want to help you do.
Did you visit people and places in Germany? How did you get there and what did you learn and
experience? What else did you do on your trip and are there things you want others to see and
experience? Please share with us your travel experience. Information on logistics belongs here
just as much as stories of personal encounters with family members you had never met before.
Share your experience, ask your questions, and make new friends along the way.