Tosters, Austria, the Blenke ancestral homeland, lies at the juncture of Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Western Austria. The area is reputed to be the origin of all Blenke's though there's probably some dispute with Blenke ancestors all along the Rhine into Belgium and the Netherlands and even Northern Germany. From Tosters, it is a reasonable walk to all three countries and their border crossings with Lichtenstein, just South of Feldkirch, and Switzerland just West in Hub, Austria.

The photo below of Tosters/Feldkirch, Austria from high above was sent to me by a distant cousin Hans-Peter Zerlauth looking North East into the Western Austrian State of Vorarlberg.

The River Ill, mid-photo, separates the Town of Feldkirch top from the Village of Tosters.

I took the second shot near the Berg Tosters castle ruins above Tosters in the first photo. The ruins were initially a scenic tourist destination for us, but it's proximity to St. Cornelius made it even more fascinating.

We drove from our hotel, Gasthaus Löwen, in Nofels, just down the River Ill, to the center of the Village of Tosters where we found a convenient Feldkirch-area map, in German of course.

The Tosters home below was atypical of many of the residences with acreage, with barn and home adjoining and always a colorful flower and/or vegetable garden. Tucked away in nearby wooded areas are modern apartments and condominiums that seem to blend in behind the more traditional architecture of the area.

Just up the road from here we found the twisty wooded lane that winds up to St. Cornelius and the Berg Tosters ruins.

Yes, that's me. The Tosternberg Castle ruin or Berg Tosters is dated to the 12th century...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The twisty woodland lane up to St. Cornelius also provides views of the valley floor below, again reminiscent of the terrain around the Ohio Valley near Northern Kentucky.

Our first view of St. Cornelius as we ascended the lane.

At the top you are greeted initially by the view of Gasthous Lieb which is today a private restaurant and bier garden that adjoins the St. Cornelius Parish

Larry and I were both amazed at how similar the architecture and internal appearance of this church mirror St. Joseph's In The Hills in Camp Springs, Kentucky that our Great, Great Grandfather Michael and fellow parishioners built.

The square, flat ceiling and overall dimensions are very nearly identical.

Walking around the courtyard, we were surprised to discover an actual descendant memorial grave of one Kornelius Blenke of a recent generation. Traditionally, there are no large Catholic cemeteries in this region and ceremonial graves are maintained near the family parish for only a generation or so and are reused by subsequent generations.

One of the primary goals that Larry and I set for this 2009 Roadtrip was to do genealogy research. We sought out the Austrian State Archive in Feldkirch, and were fortunate to have the assistance of the City Archivist Christoph to provide translation and also the wealth of research he has done on Austrian immigrants to the United States.

Among the documents, we found a vineyard property transfer record dated back to the early 1400's in Lichtenstein where the spelling of "Blenke" seems to have derived from the phonetic spelling of the day "Plenggi", but I'm still researching that one.

Other records of land ownership and fielty and an inventory of a Blenke Family farm listed, among other crops and a vineyard, were a few hectares of Hemp, which was, of course, used for clothing and rope back in those days!



Our visit to Feldkirch/Tosters/Hub Austria opened a whole new world to me. I regret that we have not made contact with our ancestor's descendants there since pre-WWI as it is a wondrous place so very similar to the Ohio River Valley East of Cincinnati that our family settled in and where I grew up. On our recent visit in September, we did make contact with Martin Blenke and his Family in Hohenems. Larry had met them on previous trips, but this being my first time in Europe, every encounter etched a memory. We had dinner with Martin in a wonderful little restaurant in Hohenems and learned quite a bit about the area and the times separating us over the years. While we still have not traced the Austrian Family tree forward to current generations, we were able to trace our line back father-to-son to 1710!

I plan to return to Tosters and tour the area even more extensively in coming years, afte rI learn a bit more "Vorarlberg" German and can converse with some of the older residents and fill in the gaps created by the World Wars. I suspect that will be fascinating in its own right.

John