Visiting my ancestors' residences in Arnstadt, Thuringia

Question

I'm writing this on the eve of embarking on a weekend trip to Thuringia (my train leaves tomorrow morning at 7.23 am, hopefully getting me to Arnstadt by 1pm if I make all connections). At Arnstadt, I'll meet up with my brother and our mother to walk the streets of our ancestors. This was inspired by the Arnstadt citizen book of 1566-1699 which is available in pdf format online (!) - as well as two follow-up volumes covering the years 1700-1797, which I have on my shelf. In those three volumes, I found many ancestors of my 3GGF F.L.V. Schreiber, basically all of those who were born or lived in Arnstadt - including a handful of mentions of residences. What a treasure trove!

So now, I'm very much looking forward to exploring this small Thuringian town together with my brother and mother over the next three days. Wish us luck and ancestral inspiration!

May you also receive the grace of such discoveries and eventful trips to your ancestors' home areas.

Answer 1

Ohh, I wish you and your family a good trip!

If you accidentally come across information about “Chr. Beitz, Hof Photograph, Arnstadt Poststrasse”, I would be very interested. The only photograph I have of my great great grandparents was made there, about 1895, but I don't know yet where exactly they lived in or near Arnstadt. They were farmers and lived in several places in Thuringia.

Comments

Thanks, we had a wonderful time!

I've looked at the citizen roll of Arnstadt 1753-1797 but didn't find any Beitz (nor Lautensack) in that book. They must have moved to Arnstadt afterwards, i.e. their ancestors were not in Arnstadt prior to the 1800s. Sorry!

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Good to hear!

Thank you very much for looking for them in the citizen roll of Arnstadt! 
While photographer Beitz seem to have lived for several years in Arnstadt, it is possible that he was not a citizen of the city and might not have had ancestors there.
My ancestors probably only lived in or near Arnstadt for a few years (not yet in 1892, the photograph is from about spring 1895 and not anymore in November 1895). Both their ancestors were not from Arnstadt.
Maybe I will find other clues one day .

Answer 2

I visited my ancestral home on my mother's side, near Meiningen in Thuringia several years ago. I hired a local genealogist to dig into some records, and then when we visited he took us around and showed us the small church our ancestors would have attended and some other things. It was a very cool trip. At one point we pointed to a statue and asked about it, he said "don't pay attention to that, it's only 150 years old."  To Americans, 150 years is very old!

We also saw the Wartburg castle where Martin Luther stayed for a while and some other local sites.

Comments

We had a great weekend at Arnstadt where we saw a lot of ancestral places.

Funnily enough, on Arnstadt's central market place, there's a statue of famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach, but it isn't even 40 years old (erected in 1985) - and yet, it's the pride of Arnstadt because it depicts Bach as a young rebel - and he indeed had to report to the police for a late night brawl back in 1703 or so 

Answer 3

2016 I enjoyed a trip along the cities where Johann Sebastian Bach worked. Arnstadt was a wonderful City with a very special statue of Bach in young years. My voyage had no genealogical aspect, only history and music was the theme. My few German ancestors are from Ostfriesland and Bentheim. Arnstadt and more 'Bach'-cities in former Eastern Germany are well worth to be visited - and finding ancestral homes must be great.

Comments

Indeed a funny statue - see my comment to Rob above. Thanks for the recommendation!