Like most Americans I am a mutt when it comes to heritage, but I am proud to be 50 percent German. All my mother's grandparents were born in Germany. My grandfather Norman Loose (pronounced "Loh-sah")'s first language was even German. It was my Grandma Bette's parents, the Kunshiers, we were chasing yesterday.
According to the records I've been given, great-great grandfather Joseph Kunshier Sr. was born in Wassersuppen, a German-speaking town in the region of Bohemia, in 1841. The political history of Bohemia is pretty complex (Wikipedia and Britannica have more info), but basically it was part of the Habsburg Empire (as was Bavaria) and then part of the new country of Czechoslovakia after World War II. Today Wassersuppen is known as Nemanice and is in the Czech Republic.
Joseph Kunshier Sr. and his wife Mary Rithanier were both born in Wassersuppen and married there in 1868. In 1884, Joseph sailed for America with his eldest son Joseph Jr., arriving at the port of Baltimore. Joseph's wife followed about a year later with the three other children, including my great-grandfather Charles, who was seven years old. What a journey that must have been! They settled in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and my relatives have been in Minnesota ever since. My parents met in Minnesota before quite sensibly moving to Oregon.
Wassersuppen/Nemanice is only a few miles across the border from Germany and about an hour and a half from our base in Regensburg. The trip was a bit of an adventure on several fronts. First, our rental car insurance is not valid in the Czech Republic (in fact we are not even supposed to take the car there), so it was quite crucial we not have any incidents! Second, our beloved satellite navigation system ends at the German border. And third, it snowed most of the time.
But I'm happy to report we got in and out with no problems and it was an interesting and enjoyable day out. Here's a little photo summary of our journey.
Our route started on a smallish highway leading east, with pretty snow-covered trees.
Over an hour later, arrival at the border! This sign indicating it is 1km away is in German.
The sign at the border itself is in Czech. The stars indicate the country is a member of the European Union (since May 2004).
Because of the European Union, the border station is no longer manned.
David braving the snow and wind at the border.
View into the Czech Republic from the border.
Just a couple miles past the border, we turned onto this lovely road to Nemanice.
Arrival in Nemanice, my ancestral homeland! (1/4 of me, anyway)
Unfortunately Nemanice is not a very pretty village now. It is full of crumbling old concrete buildings that have a depressing Communist look about them. The surrounding landscape is beautiful, however. Family stories have it that Joseph and his family lived in a log cabin by the river, but sadly there was no sign of any old wooden building anywhere.
View of the village from the road that leads out of it.
"Downtown" Nemanice (which consists of just a single road with some houses on either side).
The next item of business was to visit the church, on the off chance of seeing church records or a tombstone with the Kunshier name. David expertly maneuvered the Fiat onto the snowy hill and we hiked up to check it out.
My great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother were married here! Sadly, the church was locked. The genealogical notes indicate the Kunshiers were Catholic when they lived here, although the family eventually became Lutheran in Minnesota. A scribbled paper sign posted to the door said "Mass 08.02.03," indicating that the church is still Catholic (and that it's been a few weeks since they had a service).
Churchyard on the hill in back. We spent some enjoyable time here, looking for tombstones contemporary with the period my relatives lived here. We didn't have a lot of luck since the oldest tombstones had no surviving inscriptions, but it was very picturesque and interesting. The newest tombstone inscriptions were in Czech and the older ones were in German.
Several of the old tombstones had wonderful old photographs on them. I'm amazed they have survived. Maybe my great-great-grandfather knew this man!
Another tomb portrait
After our full investigation of Nemanice, we decided to drive a little further to see more of the Czech Republic.
A town not far from Nemanice
An unusual church somewhere on the way to Plzen
We had some thoughts of going to Plzen (Pilsen), the nearest major city. It's the home of Pilsner beer and a couple notable churches and a synagogue listed on my website. But in the end we decided the weather was just too unpleasant for sightseeing and a crowded city would increase our chances at a non-insured incident with the car. So we ended up driving about 45 minutes almost to Pilsen, then turning off onto the freeway to head back to Germany.
The weather was not so good on the way home! But fortunately it was not this bad the whole way.
We stopped at a McDonalds at a rest stop in the Czech Republic, and the menu answered a question we'd been wondering about - do they use Euros? Well, either these burgers cost $300 each or they use their own Czech currency! Fortunately, however, they accepted our Euros too since we were close to Germany.
Old border station at the German border.
Today the weather continues to be nasty (snow, cold wind) so we have spent pretty much all day in our hotel room, getting some things done, watching some TV, and just giving our feet a rare day of rest. It's been fabulous. Our big outing was a walk across the street to the mall for a lunch at Subway (the rest of the shops are closed for Good Friday), and we got to visit a bunch of real bunnies! They are in a large and carefully protected cage in the center of the mall for Easter.
Tomorrow, we head to Augsburg for three nights. That will be our last stop in Germany before we head south for new cultures, new languages, and hopefully new weather!
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