When they were young

My great-great grandmother Lena was the youngest child in her family.  She and Thias (Matthias) her next-in-line brother were the last of the ten Rauls children.  As I imagine them, they sometimes would sneak away together to the nearby woodlots or small forests, Tice leading the way; Lena his faithful shadow.

As they got older, there was hard work in the fields from spring until harvest, but I think Lena and Thias spent some early evenings, especially in spring, in the wild areas or rocky hills, looking at the sky, hearing bird songs, splashing a foot in a pond if the weather turned warm.  And all the while they were inhaling the April smell of fresh growth and the shriveled plant remains from the year before.

Let us tiptoe along behind them.

Barefoot on the road?

forget-me-not 

purple deadnettle (purple archangel?)

white dead nettle doesn't sting says Josiane

Lying on the damp ground

Looking up, chattering, and dreaming

Walking back home

Barge Shipping on the Saar River

Below is an image of the town of Saarburg, drawn in the time before photography.  It is a part of a lithograph by Peter Becker.  At the time the print was first made, there was no bridge between the town of Saarburg on the left-hand side of the Saar River and the village of Beurig on the right.  The first bridge was built in 1861, so the lithograph was made at an earlier date, probably about the time that most of our emigrating ancestors lived in the small towns near the Saar. 


On the Saar you can see a Lastschiff (barge). It is pulled by horses along the river on the Beurig side using Leinen (long ropes).  The ropes can just be made out, and the men who guided the horses on the towpath - the Halfen - are invisible.  It is my guess that they are there but that they look like a cluster of trees.  The artist was interested in the castle, the city of Saarburg, and the river itself.  He gave short shrift to the Halfen, as was all too often the way they were also treated in real life.   


However, a postcard from the collection of H.D. Jung of Saarburg shows a picture of one of the Halfen and the strong horses that pulled the barge's load against the tide.

When the Family Came in from Outside

There are still fields, woodlots, forests, wild flowers, herbs - all of which existed in earlier times but that we can see and photograph today.  But things man-made have changed.  The old dishes, furniture, cooking utensils, even the materials of the houses are clearly from our own century, and our cameras do us little good unless we visit open-air museums like Rosheiderhof near Konz or one of the small town museums.  Here we can step back to our ancestors' time to see things big and small that the 19th century family used every day.

Kitchen wall counter

On Cupboard Shelves

The Hall Between the House and the Stable

Slate Tile Hall

Multipurpose Room

Bedroom with Wash Pitcher

Upper Hallway Storage

Inside Plumbing in Earlier Times

Shared well

Murals Show the Old Boundaries Along the Saar.

Josiane wrote, "a few other pictures from above Saarhölzbach...another place above the river this time. The paintings on the walls in the shelter make us dream of old days in the area along the River Saar."

A little background explains "Kutrierish." Kurtrier (also Archbishopric and Electorate of Trier) was one of the original seven electorates of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. The temporal dominion of the Archbishop of Trier existed from late Carolingian period until the time of Napoleon. Its capital was Trier, residence since the 17th Century Koblenz .

The Lorraine -- Lothringen in German -- region is the only region having borders with four countries: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. The location of Lorraine has contributed to its being seen as a strategic asset, and as the crossroads of four nations, it has played a very important role in European affairs.  Hence the border markers in the murals below.

First chapel built 1430
New building 1792
Extended 1848
Enlarged again 1933

Rest-stop for barges
1770

Memorial (Unreadable)
1765

Kurtrierish - Lothringisher
Borderstone marker
Built on the right side of the Saar River

Kutrierish - Lothringisher
borderstone marker
Located on the left side of of the Saar

Viewing point
for the Saar River

That Special Memory

Put a camera in Josiane's hands and give her an open field, a forest, or some ground covered by leaves and she will chance on a treasure.  I wonder if my ancestors, who eventually left such lovely scenes, were able to pause in their toil, remember an almost forgotten day, and pull it from the storage place in their minds.  Was it a balm or a pain - when their new land began to overwhelm them - to find that almost forgotten picture from another time and place.

Cranes Return to Saar from Africa

Sunrise angel in the forest

Old oak in the Mettlach forest

Rare yellow anemone

Practical Beauty Underfoot

Ernst from Trier spied a treasure when he was out walking in the woods near Trier, "I found this Maronenroehrlinge, (in English, bay boletus) which, together with some other mushrooms, became my delicious dinner later. Together with boletus edulis or "Steinpilz" in German, the bay boletus is one of the best edible mushrooms in the region. The yellow pores become dark blue when you touch them, so many people think they are toxic. But slowly fried in butter, salted and peppered, the bay boletus is delicious.  During times when a loaf of bread was a treasure, mushrooms were an important part of the daily menu. It was known which mushrooms were edible and where they grew; the knowledge was handed down from generation to generation. Some mushrooms were preserved, especially dried for use in winter or put in a vinegar marinade."

Maronenroehrlinge

Stein Pilze

Saarholzbach

These pictures were taken toward the end of March in the hilly woods near Saarholzbach, Germany. Josiane who lives in Lorraine, the former German territory of Lothringen, is delighted by the spring rebirth, whether in France or in nearby Germany. The plants in Saarholzbach, she says, are exactly the same as in the Vosges of France, "same acidic soil." The River Saar that flows through Kreis Saarburg, comes from the Vosges too.

For the last photo in the group below, Josiane has a special feeling, "The small white flower is oxalis. I like it because my mother told me the name while we were walking once. It can be eaten; it tastes like sorrel."

Hiker's delight

Oxalis, the special memory