Can you tell from the title that not only do I like puns (at least the witty ones), but that I love classical music? No, I thought not. I don't know why I listen to it while doing genealogy research, but I do. Probably to keep me relaxed when a brick wall makes me want to beat my head against it.
It occurred to me that I've spent far more time on the Beu side of the family than the Lihl branch, and as the Lihl one was really the one that drew me into this whole project (my namesake, Great-Aunt Hannelore, was a Lihl), I figured it's time to rectify that.
The progress has been mixed. Jeleni 22 still isn't online, and as more details have been posted, it looks to have just Hirschenstand (the village right next to Neuhaus, now known as Jeleni) and not Neuhaus itself (now Chaloupky). While that would appear to not be of much use, it actually is: according to Oma, Hannelore lived in Hirschenstand, which means I should be able to find her marriage record and hopefully, those of her children. I know she had at least one through Oma, who remembers the child having some kind of developmental issues (possibly as extreme as Down's Syndrome, as she mentioned it showed physically) and she doesn't think the child lived long. I don't know about any others, but if I can find Hannelore's married name, I can work on tracking down any descendents. The other lovely thing about each individual record, be it birth, marriage, or death, is that the priest tended to jot down the names and dates for the other key events in the person's life, so if you find one, you find it all.
On the other hand, I've had a lot of luck tracing things further back in the records that are posted. I didn't realise for quite some time that occupations and causes of death were also in the parish records, so I'm going back in to see if I can decipher those as well for the names I already have in the tree. I'm sure my mother would call me a ghoul for thinking it's cool to have causes of death along with the other vital records, but it's one of those things that pulls them out of the obscure, distant past and makes them not only relatives, but relatable. Same with the occupations. Those are the things that make our ancestors come alive, and remind us that while so many things change over time, there are so many more that stay the same.
All in all, I'm going to trace this back as far as I can, and then try to wait patiently until the later books are online. Hmm, that DOES pose a problem, now, doesn't it? Well, it looks like I have one more reason to hope the hubby gets stationed in Germany...huzzah for in-person research!
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