What does geocaching have to do with genealogy?Well, usually nothing, unless you count one being right after the other in an alphabetical listing of Boy Scout merit badges. However, my daughter Reid works for Groundspeak, the operators of Geocaching.com, and I have gotten into the hobby, so I am trying to combine my hobbies into something fun and maybe even useful for both. So, I have created a Travel Bug, which Reid is going to carry to Germany for me. Its mission is to travel to Alsace, France, looking for clues to our Kuehner ancestry. The Travel Bug is named Kuehner 1, and its code is TB40AYF. It has a very specific and ambitious goal – to find the specific village in the Alsace where my great-grandfather, Nikolaus Matthias Kuehner, was born – on July 12, 1824. I hope that the TB will travel to the Alsace, which was then and is now a part of France, and visit as many villages as it can. Once it is there, I hope that geocachers will take and post pictures of the churches, cemeteries, and other features of the area, looking for clues to his family. The name may be spelled Kihner, Kuhner, or Kühner. |
Nikolaus Matthias Kuehner was born in Alsace, France on July 12, 1824, but as you can see from his tombstone, he clearly considered himself of German descent.This is his tombstone in St. Luke's Cemetery, St. Lucas, Fayette County, Iowa. The names of the villages where I hope my travel bug will visit can be found at Wikepedia, in both French and German. Here's the link: Villages of the Alsace A laminated copy of this tree is attached to the Travel Bug.Along with instructions on how to contact me and post pictures of the villages, cemeteries, and churches of the area. If you're not a geocacher, and you want to send information, please use the contact form at the Home page.
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