Julius Langhans Family
From left to right: Julius Langhans and his wife Christianna. The baby is Carl Langhans. Standing by their parents are the twins, Edward and Hannah. Sitting on the ground are Ernest, Herman, and Martin. The picture is probably taken in East Otto, New York. Herman, John's grandfather, was born 3 May 1880 in Dargow, Germany and the family arrived in New York in 1884. Baby Carl was born in September 1890 so the picture is perhaps 1891.
John Frederick Langhans, son of Meier Frederick Langhans and grandson of Herman Frederick Langhans at the bus stop in Dargow, July 2013. The first Langhans descendant to return to Dargow.
It was a short day of riding even with our planned diversions so we spent some time exploring the churches of Lubeck before heading out of town. That was one of our least memorable stretches of riding-- on city streets for some time, finally out into the suburbs, roundabout, another roundabout, finally over the autobahn and relief-- we turned right onto a shady green lane and ideal cycling. Our route led us past more wheat and in one field we were able to watch the gigantic thresher chomping through the rows and spitting chaff out one end and kernels into a truck lumbering slowly alongside. Sadly I was so fascinated with watching that I did not take a picture! Eventually we arrived at the Ratzeburg Lake and turned onto a bumpy lakeside path. We had an informal lunch in the Ratzeburg Market Square and headed out again ready to make the short diversion to Dargow which lay slightly off our route.
The area in which we were riding is called the "Lakes of Lauenberg" and includes about forty lakes. Our ride along the shores of the Ratzeburg Lake was just the beginning. We were on trailside paths and hiking paths for several kilometers before turning toward Dargow. Dargow is small, not much more than a crossroads. No house that we saw appeared old-- it was hard to get a sense of what the place was like a century ago. There are now no telephone listings for Langhans in Dargow although there are listings in nearly Mustin, Sterley and Hollenbeck; all villages associated with the family.
Touring around the small village we did see this one family association. An early Langhans, Joachim Hartwig Langhans married a Dorothea Eggert. At this place there was high viewing platform open to the public. We all climbed up for the great views.
John and Dereka - viewing tower in Dargow, Germany
Then it was off to Seedorf, the town in which Dargow residents went to church and from whose parish registers I had learned the details about John's ancestry. Seedorf was back on the Germany Cycling Tours route.
The Church in Seedorf
I had little hope for the church and cemetery because most burials in Europe are not perpetual. The stone and plot are maintained as long as there is family to pay but at some time the bones are exhumed and the grave is reused. Imagine our surprise, therefore, when we stopped at the church, started up the walk and right away saw a large marker headed Dem andenken unseres sohnes Johannes Langhans. (The remains of our son). The position of the marker vis a vis the sun was terrible and made it difficult to take a picture but it was very legible to the eye. Both a memorial and a grave marker, it honored a Johannes born in 1892 who died in Russia in 1915 as well as his parents, Johannes and Catharina. John's grandfather Herman Langhans was born in 1880, about twelve years earlier than the Johannes who died on the battlefield and could certainly be a cousin. The logical connection fails, however, because it appears that the older Johannes is unlikely to be a brother of Julius Langhans who was born 29 years earlier in 1839.
In Salt Lake City I copied many pages of the Seedorf parish registers and I will examine them again but since I don't have all the pages it will be a matter of great good luck if I find the 1868 Johannes. This is what the parish registers look like. It takes a bit but one can get accustomed to the handwriting and pick out the relevent entries. Time for another trip to SLC?? I have been looking for an excuse but this seems a flimsy one.
Leaving Seedorf we headed for our evening's destination and before long we came across our first crossing into the former DDR-- East Germany.
The Berlin Wall was opened on 9 November 1989 and the "Iron Curtain" crossings began about the same time and continued for several weeks. We passed several similar signs, each with different dates. Existing crossings were opened immediately and over time new crossings were established, connecting communities that had been separated for more than forty years. We learned and thought about the border and the different regimes frequently over the next few days of the ride and I will write more but this post is nearly long enough for now.
Entering Zarrentin our instructions led us on a sightseeing diversion about which we were too tired to care and that was difficult to follow. We bumbled around hither and yon eventually ending up on the same street where we had entered the town and arrived at our hotel about 5:30 to find that our luggage had not arrived! Catastrophe! It was our routine to shower and rest before seeking a refreshing beverage but now the beverage had to come first. A pretty and nice waitress was ready to supply beer and wine and as time dragged on with no luggage, one drink led to another. Finally our bags arrived, we showered and had dinner. With it appeared the specialty of the area, courtesy of the chef.
This was fat, mixed with caramelized onions and apples. Was it chicken, pork? I didn't want to know but in my drunken state, open to new experiences and pushing aside the fact that I was a vegetarian, I ate it! It was not horrible and I was not the only one who ate it-- we finished all the bread but not quite all the stuff. Then, general jollity so prevailed that we abandoned all caution and ordered large ice creams all around.
Continue to Part 5
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