After I have searched several cemeteries in Campbell County for the graves of ancestors, I had hoped to find old graves of our family when visiting Germany. The graves of Germany are beautiful and very much different than our cemeteries here in America. The graves are clearly defined by a surround of marble or granite and meticulously maintained to display an array of flowers carefully placed.

On a recent visit to Germany, we witnessed someone cleaning the head stones and then carefully drying that granite stone. The live flower plants are sometimes accompanied with a lantern or another form of “perpetual Light”. The light however is only kept for a short time. The old head stones we think of when we saw “The Sound of Music” is not what you will find in present day Germany.

Graves are recycled after twenty or thirty years and old remains are removed. I am not sure where they are placed. Sometimes new grave stones record the grave of a son and wife with the parents noted on the stone as one who also shared this burial site.

I have found so much family history recorded in old tomb stones here in Campbell County. I find it difficult to accept this “recycle” practice in Germany. The oldest graves perhaps are those of WW II German military personnel.

Here in America we attempt to preserve the grave sites of our old cemeteries. Some times, however, the old cemeteries have been destroyed even with the approval of the Catholic Church. The old Mother of God Cemetery on 26th St. near Madison Ave., in Covington is one such cemetery lost forever. The headstones were collected and stored on site in a fenced area. The location of the graves will remain unknown.

The cemetery owned by Mother of God Church was also known as Buena Vista or St. Joseph. The Web reports that some of the graves were moved. If you are doing Covington family research you should check into the location of the relocated graves.

Other small old family plots in the Northern Kentucky area have been preserved with dignity by developers.

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When visiting a small cemetery between Kappelrodeck and Ulm in the Baden area of Germany, we found the final resting place for several WW II German military personnel. The small stones which marked the graves, recorded the oldest graves in this cemetery. The simple military grave markers are in contrast to the larger headstones recording the life dash between the birth and death of more recently deceased members of the community.
WW ll German Military Graves.

We were in the Baden area researching the Baumann family roots but were not successful in finding the origin of our Baumann family from Germany.

We located the records of a Baumann person with the same given name who emigrated in 1867 but then that is another story in my research. The Kappelrodeck village has a charming setting in a valley, surrounded by hillsides of carefully cultivated vineyards. We have been there twice and I must say it is one of our favorite places to visit and relax in Germany. I hoped this would be the village of our ancestors.

While in this area of Germany we did find family names known to us here in Campbell County. In Kappelrodeck there were many families listed with the name of Köninger. Here in Kentucky the name was Americanized to Koeninger.

The WW I and WW II monuments at St Nicholas Church in Kappelrodeck record several Köninger young men who gave there lives for their country. We found headstones in the local cemetery which record the newer graves of the Köninger and Zink families. While I have a family relationship here I have not researched the origin of these Kentucky families in Germany.

Before we proceeded further through Germany we cannot leave without again proclaiming the beauty and maintenance of their cemeteries. I can only wonder how they dispose of the headstones and remains of the loved ones after a grave site is reused. I will attempt to research this further when we again visit Germany this month.

An overview of a small cemetery will give you some insights as to what one can expect to find in Germany. Pay particular attention to the variety of Sizes, Shapes and locations of the head stones.



In the future we may explore more grave sites as we talk about our family here in America.

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Thank you, Don