Post #3, 26 May 2020:
In the year 1840, at the age of 47, my 3rd Great Grandfather, Martin Dippel (1792-1852), his wife, Elizabeth (Schmidt), and their 8 children emigrated from Hackenheim, Germany to the United States.
Hackenheim is a small village, tucked in amid small mountains and rolling hills in German wine country. It is near Bad Kreuznach, in the Rhineland-Palatinate.
My wife, my parents, and I traveled to Hackenheim in December of 2004, hoping to explore a little bit of the town where our ancestors came from. On a previous visit, I had met Ms. Ingeborg Mecele, a resident of the village. During our visit, she treated us like honored guests, and showed us around the village.
The focal point in the center of the village is St. Michael Evangelical church. Here's an image of the church, and a short, German history of the congregation.
Ingeborg introduced us to some of her friends, and the group of us went on a short tour to the old cemetery, which sits at the top of the hill overlooking the village.
Here's a picture of a small chapel at the cemetery. It is fairly new, and is likely used for various ceremonies that are conducted at the old cemetery.
A couple emblems at the chapel describe the history of the location, where the main church actually stood several centuries ago.
There were a number of very old, mostly illegible gravestones situated around the small chapel, and many more unseen graves lost to the passage of time.
From the old cemetery, you can see the entire village of Hackenheim. The Catholic church is the large building with the tower, in the center distance. In the foreground, you can see the bare vineyards of the surrounding area. I'm sure a similar picture in the summertime would look quite different! The dirt road leading up to the old cemetery actually cuts through a vineyard.
A short distance from the old cemetery, just to the side of the dirt road you'll see a "Denkmal", or memorial similar to the one seen here.
These traditional little memorials, called "Bildstock" or "Wegstock" are places to pause, say a prayer, and remember loved ones, and others who have gone before us.
Here's an excerpt from a travel brochure that talks about the village, and the bike/walking paths in the vicinity.
Around the time my 3rd great grandfather emigrated to the United States (1840), census data indicates there were about 550 residents in Hackenheim; as of 2013, there were just over 2100 residents. My family and I made several new friends during our visit to the village, and it gave us a chance to remember some of our ancestors, and walk along some of the same paths as they did so long ago.