Greetings from Austria!

What better time to research my dad’s family history, then while on vacation in his hometown!  I’m really starting from scratch  and was hoping to visit the church archive and interview some older family members while on vacation.  Upon contacting the Archiv der Diözese Gurk (Catholic Church Archives), I found out that you must make a FOUR month in advance appointment to do research – a huge disappointment.  This was confirmed over the phone with the church archivist.  So, the archives will have to wait.

One of the first things we did was visit my Oma’s grave in Friedhof Pörtscach.  I loved my Oma very much.  We visited the cemetery many times with her, as most of her family is buried there.  On these visits, she had no interest to explain who was who and I had never had the interest to ask.  But times have changed and now my Oma’s name appears on the headstone with her husband’s, and I have lots of questions.

Who are these other two people: Matthias and Juliane Feicht?  My dad recalls that Oma would explain that Juliane was her aunt (…who liked to flirt with younger married men).  Aha! That tells me so much!  But who is she really?  She could be my great-grandfather’s sister; I have a photo with three mystery women one of which could be her.  Which of the three looks more flirtatious?  🙂  Then again my great-grandmother could have had 12 sisters for all I know!  As my dad said to me leaving the cemetery “that’s for you to figure out!”

The cemetery visit still provided a lot of information.  All of my Oma’s siblings are buried there and I now have all their birth dates and spouse names.  We will return once more to the cemetery for further reflection.

To view photos of the headstones, visit the family photo album here.