Stan Card's Photos from his Trip to Germany

Just returned from trip to Germany. Great 3 weeks of warm weather and 1 week of cool rainy (but not everyday nor the whole day). We were in Bargen, Schaffhausen and stayed in a hotel owned by a Paul Tanner. The hotel was built about the time our Hans Jakob left the town. One Gasthaus was built about the year he was born and the two houses across the street were built in the 1200's and 1300's.

Swiss law said I had to get permission from EVERYONE descended from him to let them go thru the records and get info. The townhall people agreed with me it was stupid. The church is in the next town and the minister had turned the books over to the town or he'd have given me any info he had. There are 250 people in Bargen and about 30-40 are Tanners. I also met a guy I've been e-mailing from Schaffhausen whose name is Hans Jakob Tanner (he's about 30 years old) but he isn't from our line. We're not sure if he's from the same part of the Tanners as there are quite a few in the Canton of Schaffhausen.

In the cemetery at the families church I saw 2 Hans and 2 Jakob Tanners headstones, plus many other Tanner stones dating from late 1800's to present.. The only thing is they dig the remains up after X amount of years and either put them in a mass grave or dispose of them some where else. Where my in-laws are buried they buy the lot for 40 years and if no one re-buys it then it's re-sold to a new family and the remains are destroyed.

I also went to the town (Leiman, Germany) where Johann Michael Schmitt/Schmidt came from and with the help of a young man from the townhall found where he owned a Wirthaus (resturant and pub). It has a bakery in it now and I took pictures of it. We also went thru the church records and found them listed and he said he'll try to find more on the family and send it to me. We'll see. Also went to Mutterstadt-Weinacht family hometown and still many from family in the town.

One of the best trips I've made. Stan Card, Tampa, Florida

	This is the Hotel In Leimen I stayed in. It's about a block from where I was shown the building that housed the pub owned by Johann Michael Schmidt/Schmitt.
	Here's one from Bargen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Hans Jakob Tanner's home town. Pop: 250. Founded 1210 years ago. The church they had the children baptised in was the town of Merishausen which is a couple of miles south of Bargen. Upper picture is the town, the steeple is the town hall. Lower left is the Hotel and pub where I stayed. It was built about the time Hans Tanner left (mid 1700's) The other picture is the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen, which is where the Germans say the Rhine begins, but really it comes from the other side of Lake Constance from the Swiss Mountains.
	This is Bargen from the other direction. To the right you can see the town hall. In the middle (red building w/lots of windows) is the Gasthaus L–wen (Pub and Hotel Lion) which is the one built when Hans left Bargen. Another pub behind and to left (hard to pick out) was built when he was born and two houses across the street (behind the pub L–wen) were built in 1200's and 1300's. Lots of old houses and the owner of the pub L–wen is Paul Tanner. He said there are 4 Tanner families in town for a total of 30-40 people. The upper right hand corner at very top you can see the German/Swiss Border. There was a small snack trailer there: name: Imbiss Tanner. In Merishausen is a lumber yard, Name: Tanner Lumber Yard and in the cemetery are lots of Tanners (2 Hans and 2 Jakob). All from late 1800's and 1900's. In Europe they buy the lot for a period of time: (40 years in Germany where my in-laws are buried) and you can buy it again afterwards, but if family doesn't then they sell it to someone else and the remains are removed and someone else is buried there. Some places the remains are in a mass grave others, I was told are dumped, but I don't know where. .
	These post cards have a couple of houses in the background that I mentioned. The white house with the beams is the one built c1275 and the house closer to the street just below it was built c1350 according to the book on Bargen I saw. Wish I could have found a book, but as I said, they called around and asked people but none available.
	Here is the church in Merishausen where the Tanner family would have baptised the children and gotten married. It's 2-3 miles from Bargen.
	This is the picture of Paul Tanner and me. Paul is the owner of "Gasthaus Zum L–wen" in Bargen. Paul has the blue shirt. .
	This one's from Leimen, This is the Brewery in the Schmidt hometown.
	Another pic from Leimen. This is the building that I was told was the pub Schmidt owned.
	This is the bakery that was the Schmidt pub.
	Here's the town Sq with the Town Hall (Rathaus) in background with the flowers on windows. The guy under the tree in back of the car is me.
	Mutterstadt is near Mannheim and Ludwigshaven on the Rhine River. It was the home of the Weinacht, Wild and Transou/Fransou families.
	another pic: Hockenheim was the hometown of Engelhorn family: (wife of Joh. Michael Schmidt and Georg Hertel).
	This is the last one for now. Zwingenberg was the hometown of Becker, Anna M. who married Johannes Wambold.