FRIDAY

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Drive around the Nesselwang and Wank area to see 'family sites'......

Above is the little church where Wayne's great-great-great grandfather attended before he left Wank to come to America in 1853.

Josef Allgaier (a cousin who still lives in Wank) showed us several years ago this church and also took us inside and upstairs. He showed us where Johan Martin Allgaier carved his name in the railing of the church!

Look very, very carefully and you can see his name carved in the picture above! That was carved there prior to 1853!!!

We took a 'tour' of the ALLGAIER FACTORY in Wank. This is where it ALL BEGAN about 8 years ago. As we were driving around the area on the little 2-lane back roads looking for any clues of where the Allgaier's might have come from, we saw this factory. We, of course, stopped and went inside. We told the young man (Christoph) at the desk that we were ALLGAIER'S from America looking for our family who had come from Germany in 1853. After several hours of conversing with Christoph and his grandfather (Josef), we were told that we were the 'missing family' they had been looking for as well!!! You can imagine our delight to have FOUND OUR FAMILY after looking for about 40 years!!!

Here is a picture of (L to R) Jonathan, Bernhart (cousin), Wayne and Steven....in front of one of the shipping boxes.

And Bernhart and his son standing in front of the door into the factory.

Their NEW LOGO! Nice job......

Walking around the factory some more......it was fascinating to see the operation.

We stopped next door at the factory where log homes are built. The large PENCILS out front were a 'draw' for me because of my pencil collections. I thought they made pencils. We stopped by to check it out......NOPE.....they build homes. We met Hans about 8 years ago as well. And we are still friends with him and look him up whenever we are in town.

We visited the 350 year old ALLGAIER HOMESTEAD in Hertagan, about 2 km from Wank. This is the ORIGINAL homestead and has been in the family for all these many years. Jorg Allgaier moved here with his new bride in the 1700's .....he moved here from Oy, Germany.

And these are the Allgaier cousins who live there today.

Another view of the front of the homestead.

It was time to go to dinner at Elisa and Mona and Sigrid's home in Moosbach....about 20 km away from Nesselwang. We just love them to pieces. Elisa spent about 2 months with us in America. What a great time they showed us.....and what a delicious dinner we had.