European Family History Trip: Day 7 – Krasnik-Dolny, Poland and Freiberg, Germany
Picturesque Lavender Farm
We stayed the night at a Lavender Farm in Gorny, Poland (what used to be Ober Schönfeld, Germany). Our accommodations were nice and comfortable, and I had fun this morning walking around the lavender plants and taking photos.
Revisiting Cemeteries
Then, we went back to the Protestant Cemetery in Krasnik-Dolny because Dave wanted to try turning over a heavy stone in case there were words on the back. We turned it over, but it just turned out to be the top ornamental section of the big Dausel monument. There was no writing on it. Dave cleaned out some of the vines, and we took more pictures of headstones. None seemed relevant to his family line, but he’ll upload them to FindAGrave when he’s home.
Boleslaweic, Poland – the Home of Pottery
Then, we went to Boleslaweic, Poland which is a city about 10 km from Kraznik-Dolny. If Dave’s “Granny Geerdts” wanted to go to a bigger city, this is the one she would have traveled to. We walked around the town square, but the churches and museums were closed. We didn’t realize they were closed on Mondays. We were able to go to a delicious Polish bakery and looked in some pottery shops. Boleslaweic is known for its pottery.
Afterwards, we went back to the small overgrown cemetery where he found Marie Rotkirch Dausel’s. The men had been so cold and tired the day before, Dave wanted to see if he’d missed anything. We found a triangular monument turned over in the dirt that had writing on all three sides. We set it upright so others could look at it when they come.
Always Look on the Backside
After we did this, I had a flash of inspiration, and just knew that Marie Dausel’s grave had writing on the back. Sure enough, we discovered that all the stones had writing on the back. But the guys hadn’t thought to look on the backs the day before because the backs of the monuments are all about 5 inches from a cement wall. You can’t get to the backs to look at them. And the headstones are mounted in place so you can’t move them. We used our phone cameras to do the best we could to photograph the fronts and backs of all the monuments. Dave will upload these to FindAGrave when he’s home as well.
To get to the back of Marie’s grave, we had to move away a bunch of dead limbs and Dave removed a tree from behind it. While Dave took photos of all the monuments, I felt it was important to take more photos of the back of Marie’s grave. I could only photograph sections at a time. Unfortunately, the center part has started crumbling away and is unreadable. But there seems to be a couple names on the back. We worked, cleaned, and photographed that cemetery for over an hour.
This wraps up our time in Poland where Dave’s great-great-grandmother (Granny Geerdts) lived before immigrating to the U.S. Now we’re back in Germany.
Poland – Germany Border Crossing
There was a huge traffic lineup to cross the border back to Germany. We sat in that line for about 30 minutes, and then fortunately, our GPS suggested a shorter route. Border agents check all the trucks at the border between Poland and Germany. This is part of making sure people aren’t being smuggled into Germany. The detour took us off the highway, through a town on the border. We were able to cross right over and just held up my passport as we drove by. I don’t think they would have stopped us if we hadn’t put up the passport.
After crossing the border, we drove to Freiberg, Germany and are staying in the on-site accommodations at the Freiberg, Germany LDS Temple. We had reservations at the temple the next day and stayed there for the night. The accommodations were simple, but very affordable – 20 Euros, which I imagine is just the cleaning fee.
That evening went to Ratskeller in downtown Freiberg for dinner. It was so delicious! After eating only pastries all day, I was ready for something substantial. The tender pork medallions with ginger-apple gravy, red cabbage and potato dumplings hit the spot!
Click here to continue reading about Day 8 in Freiberg, Germany and Prague.
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