The Search for Angela’s Ancestors

So …. as we mentioned previously, Angela has been able to find very little pertaining to her family’s ancestry in Luxembourg. She knows that her great grandparents, on her father’s – mother’s side of the family were born in Luxembourg. Their names were Peter Thill and Lena Meisch.

Peter Thill and Lena Meisch came to America via Ellis Island sometime in the 1880’s. They were married in 1893 and had 3 children, including Angela’s grandmother, Helen Thill, who was born in 1902 in San Francisco. Beyond that, we know nothing about her great grandparents except for a note that Angela found in Helen’s contacts book, which read:

Lena M Meisch, Tuntingen, Mersch.

After a quick search of the internet, we discovered that there is a small town named Mersch located in the countryside about a half hour bus ride north of Luxembourg City. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of a town called Tuntingen. But after locating Mersch on google maps, we did notice a town called Tuntange just few kilometers to the west of Mersch. By doing a bit more research on the town of Tuntange, we were able to discover that the German name for the town is Tüntingen … and, that it is located in the canton (or province) of Mersch! Yay, it’s off the Tuntange we go!! : )

After a relaxing bus ride through the forests of Luxembourg, we are dropped off just outside the tiny hamlet of Tuntange … right next to its cemetery … so, into the cemetery we go, and because the cemetery is so small, it didn’t take us long to find these:

Because the town of Tuntange is so small, and because the names and dates on the gravestones match up so well, we have no doubt that we were walking amongst the graves of Angela’s ancestors.

All in all, it was a pretty special day. Traveling thousands of miles to a tiny village in the European countryside to discover, and walk amongst the gravestones of Angela’s long lost relatives is an experience we will not soon forget …

Here’s a list of our newly discovered additions to the Thill – Meisch family tree: