July 28, 2009 - OLD pipe organ!!!

Okay, so I should have brought some organ music along - one of the things I decided to skip to save luggage space! Today I had the opportunity to play the ancient pipe organ in the church where my great-great-grandparents were married in 1835 - flat pedal board and all. No one knows for sure exactly how old it is and I couldn't find a date anywhere on it.

Frank playing the organ in Veseli nad Luznici

Also met an 80+ year old woman who seems to be a distant relative on the Malecha side. I'm comparing documents with her son tomorrow morning to see if the lines interlink, but she and I a pretty sure that they do.

Marie (Malecha) Nestával, a Malecha relative

This is my second day in a row without lunch - though the elderly Malecha relative broke out a bottle of Becherovka liqueur - which I had only heard about but never tasted. I liked it, even on an empty stomach! Today was non-stop with the guide and the village chronicler from Sviny (the Trnka and Malecha village). The chronicler had been maintaining the village records for 45 years including having to submit everything he wanted to include to the communist censors before he could enter an item in the chronicle - basically a news and events record of the village.

It's now 8 p.m. and I decided to get my 400 photos transferred to CD before dinner tonight, so I don't have time for the whole day's story. Had a chance to go into the courtyard and outer buildings of the Trnka homestead which is being renovated by a young couple, but which right now is about like it was in 1850!

This was really an unbelievable day and tomorrow we'll be meeting with the son of the woman I met today, then on to the Hanzel villages (great-grandmother's side of the family) and to Strakonice for the night and the bagpipe museum!