Today, we explored Alice's ancestral homeland. Some of Alice's ancestors (the Greiners) were glass makers, so I decided we'd start by visiting a glass factory about 15 minutes from Rohrbach-lès-Bitche.
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| This is Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche (the REAL St. Louis) with a population of 634. They have a world renowned glass factory that dates back to 1767 (http://www.saint-louis.com/en/history), but we learned -- much to our chagrin -- that they are closed on Tuesdays.
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| This is the only glass we got to see there. |
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| So, we drove another 15 minutes to this glass museum in Wingen-sur-Moder (population 1643). |
This is some of their glass and crystal.
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| Hundreds of Alice's ancestors lived in Rohrbach-lès-Bitche (lower left -- population 2115), Bettviller (top center -- population 838), Guising (upper left -- population about the same as Bettviller). Those towns almost form a circle about 2 miles across and we have visited them before. This year, most of the work we've done is for ancestors in Hoelling (upper right). |
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| This is Hoelling. |
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| Alice's 3rd great grandfather John Young (Jean Jung) owned a bakery in Rohrbach. Last time we were here, we ate lunch at a small bakery next door to where the Jung bakery used to be. That one went out of business, so we ate lunch at this bakery that is a little bigger and is located on the edge of town. |
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| The Rohrbach-Bettviller loop is still visible in the center of this expanded map, but almost every town where Alice's "Jung" ancestors lived from (at least) 1585 to the 1840s is shown here. Besides the Rohrbach-Bettviller area, she had many ancestors in Montbronn (bottom center -- population 1668) and at least one from Gersheim, Germany (top left -- population 6781). This expanded map is only about 10 miles by 10 miles, making it very apparent how close Rohrbach is to the German border. |
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| This is Gersheim. |
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| This is the view from the bridge in Gersheim. |
