Holly in Klingen with some of our relatives

Dear All,
One day we drove to the small village of Klingen in the Alsace area of Germany and France which has gone back and forth between France and Germany depending on who had won the recent war.  The earliest we seem to be able to trace our family is back to the area about 1620.  Klingen itself is much older with records showing the name around 1125.  My great great grandfather Johann George Leonhard left Germany in the early 1800's and settled with his family in the Newark, Ohio area.  Ohio had a huge number of  German immigrates.  My great grandfather went by the name of John ,but we think he was actually Jacob and took the name of John his dead brother when we joined a Mormon wagon train heading west.  John or Jacob is the weak link in connecting to its German roots, but there is much circumferential evidence that we belong to this family in Klingen.  In the Klingen Family tree, they show a Johann George leaving with his wife and 2 sons John and Jacob for the US about the same time our Johann George left Germany.  The Klingen people thought their Johann George left for Ohio where there where many Germans from Klingen.  Susan and I feel quite strongly that we have found the right family to connect to here in Germany.  So we took Holly to meet some of her German Family in Klingern, and then that night we drove to Strassbourg France (only an hours drive away) and to another Christmas market.  I've included a few picture of the family that is a side line to our family, but Erwin is a genealogist and therefore he is interested in connecting us to them.

Here is Holly flanked by Erwin Leonhard and me.  Erwin lives about 20 minutes away from Klingen.  He and his wife Elfriede ( she was not feeling well this day) have a son Markus who is presently working and living in Australia.  This picture was taken in the town of Rohrbach where Erwin lived as a child

This is in the tiny church in Klingen (about 250 families).  In the picture is Erwin and Hilde her husband Willi Koehler, Holly and me.  Erwin and Hilde are 1st cousins.  Hilde grew up in Klingen and knows everybody.  Here aunt keeps the key to the church and so we were able to get into it.

This is the exterior of the church in Klingen, the church has burned down and rebuilt several times.  The tower is the oldest part of the church

Erwin and I are standing by a 1000 liter wine barrel in the yard of the house where we think our first ancestor from France came.  The foundation stone says 1620.

This ruin is in the area and from here you can see the small village of Klingen.  It was first started in 729 and was enlarged during the years.  They are now trying to restore much of it.  It was a cold windy day that we were there.

We had a delightful day with Erwin, Hilde, und Willi.  Erwin and Hilde are working on a family gathering for the end of April 2013 that we hope to be able to attend before we leave Germany.  It would really be something if we could meet some more of the family befor we leave.