I had the opportunity to visit villages in Germany where my ancestors lived. Leckringhausen, Wolfhagen, Kassel, Germany was a cute village and I was so honored to walk around and take some pictures.
I have some family from Leckrighausen, my third great grandmother Sophie Jacob was born in Leckrighausen on 9 March 1936. When I started my research I did not know who Sophie’s parents were. As I continued my search I found Sophie’s death record and had some help translating it.
Sophie’s parents are Heinrich Jacob and Elizabeth Von Emde. I found her parent’s names on her marriage record that I was able to find after learning she was from Leckringhausen. Sophie was born Catherine Sophie Jacob, which makes this family fun to research because Sophie also had a sister named Catherine. Sophie married Konrad Burghardt 12 April 1863 in Ippinghausen, Wolfhagen, Kassel, Germany. Ippinghausen is a nearby village that I was also able to visit.
I was able to find Sophie’s baptism record from Leckringhasuen. The lesson I learned finding all this information was just how important it is to know the exact location in Germany. I had searched all the Church records for Kirtchditmold for these records because that is where Konrad and Sophie’s children were born. I could not find anything about them before and now I knew why they were not from Kirtchdimold. Thankfully a death record gave me the information I needed to continue my search and add both Konrad and Sophie’s parents to my tree.
I have not yet found any other information on Heinrich Jacob or Elizabeth Von Emde. I am still working my way through archion.de church records for Leckringhausen to hopefully find a marriage or death record for them. I did find a sister for Sophie, as I mentioned above, her name is Catherine Jacob, she was born 3 December 1833 in Leckringhausen.
Catherine and Sophie are the only two children I have found so far for Heinrich and Elizabeth. I am still searching for more information on this family.
I have loved connecting with my ancestors by visiting their villages in Germany. Learning about my German ancestors has not been easy for me but the reward has come by learning more about them and where they lived.
Ella Jane Anne 
What a great post! I am a firm believer in visiting the areas where ancestors lived, and your trip illustrates the benefits. So great that you have found those crucial vital records — but equally great to walk through the church and area where your ancestors spent their lives.
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Molly, I agree about visiting ancestors’ home towns. I have been lucky enough to visit several in the United States but never dreamed I would actually go to Germany. So it made this really special.
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Traveling for genealogy is certainly more beneficial than doing a leisure trip for burning one’s skin on a beach. Or doing photo sightseeing of ‘Japanese style’ without learning about places and people – just for impressing others with ‘hey, look where I have been’.
Jennifer, I congratulate you that you were able to live one of your dreams by doing a hobby. It is much different to do ancestry this way than doing just scrolling through online archives, isn’t it?
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Frank, Yes, it was so much different than just scrolling the archives. While I love archives and finding my family there being where my ancestors lived made me feel so much closer to them. Jennifer
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