Someone on the list ask me to post this story about our trip! Hope it doesn't upset anyone. If so just delete it! Helene After a month of being in Germany and Austria we are home! What beautiful country and what fun we had! Met cousins, were wined and dined by family I didn't know I had, and got genealogy on my family von Metnitz back to 793 and Pflaummer to 1139 ! The latter is my grandmother's lineage. Have copies of everything the archives had in Klagenfurt on my Metnitz family. They copied all of it in exchange for a microfilm copy they wanted of my Grandmother's genealogy book she co-wrote in the 1920-30s with professional researchers. We were walked by courthouse department heads (who locked their offices) to our cemetery where I was able to see my grandparents and cousins graves. Two museums that were locked were opened to show us things they felt we needed to see in both Metnitz (the town) (where the Metnitz family arrived from France in 790) and in Klangenfurt where the Metnitz family were one of the earliest families in the Corinthia area. They were there before 1200s; this after an upset with the Bishop of Gurk who razed their castle in Metnitz. Met a cousin in Weissenburg that the courthouse persons directed me to. He promptly locked his restaurant and Brewery (now defunct) and took us to his home to show us his chart of the Pflaummer family from 1100. He lived in the home of his family and was the 5th generation to live in it. The brewery had been in business from 1558 until a few years ago, and of the 30 breweries in town there are now only 3 left. I had the main line of this family but did not have the hundreds of family members. He and I compared our material. Now I will send him a copy of my book and he will make a large copy of the chart for me. It was a chart on old parchment that was bigger than a map (like the old school maps) and filled his dining room wall. It had been hand painted and incribed by a teacher many years ago and he had added to it. All the dates were on it! In Klagenfurt Dr. Byenburg who was the town historian told me I had family there, a friend of his, and he called the cousin who had the same name as my father. They invited us to come to their old home (an early castle that had been remodeled) and so we had afternoon "coffee" and goodies with them and compared notes and found where he fit into the family. He was also a second cousin. We were treated warmly and the pictures and books came out to share. Their cute daughter will come to the USA again this year. She speaks excellent English and her mother does really well, as she is a teacher and Carl did very well also. The highlight of the trip however was when in Saalefeld, the town in what was the east sector of Germany after W.W.II where my father was born.We went to the Rothaus and the gal didn't speak English. Showed her thatI wanted information on the family Metnitz and would like to find the graves of my grand parents. She searched and searched. Finally a gentleman nonchalantly came in eating an ice cream asked what she was doing ? She told him and he asked us and again I showed him my grandmother's book. He looked shocked! He went to his desk and picked up some loose papers he had there and asked if I knew anything about Carl or Gustav von Metnitz who went to Hamburg and then New York City. Told him they were my father and one of his brothers who went to the USA in 1926. I showed him who they were in the book. He got on the phone and called the tourist bureau and had a gal come over who spoke good English. It seems that he had been working on this family as he had a letter from an attorney and a cousin who was claiming heir to my grandfather's estate. He had told her she needed proof of the other children of my father's brothers and sisters. He had sent the info to the archivist who was to prove this. The letter was dated September 20, 1999. We were there on the 1st of October. I had a lot of his answers. He sent me home with copies of the letters and told me the attorney wanted to contact me. Strange to say, my grandfather died in 1910. His wife died in 1953. Their home had been bombed by the Americans and the copper wire factory next door which they had operated for many years as well. If I had come in the day before the archivist hadn't been there and if we had come the following 2 weeks he would have been on vacation as he was leaving the next morning. His quote was, "It's magic". I had saved him much work. Now the question is, what inheritance? Was it possibly repatriation? If it is only a buck, the story is worth its weight in gold. When grandmother died my dad's share was 600 dollars approximately. This had been a family with great prestige and lots of wealth over the centuries. Now , how do you like that for a genealogical story? Will look forward to hearing from you. Helene