The next day we traveled to Baratzhausen, where Peter Velcsov the priest from Vinga serviced memorial mass in our church, than we went down to the crypt and had a look at to the 45 graves of our ancestors.  The Capdebo church is in a great condition in Baratzhausen.  The old seed stalk is still standing since 1830!  The “Sandor” house with towers needs repair.  The weather was cold, and rainy, but we walked on the main street and I imaged where the Capdebo castle could be in the past.  My relatives told me it was at the end of the main street on the left side.  It is so sad, that we do not have the building anymore.  The castle has been demolished in the 1920^th.  It was a two story building with Doric pillars, had twelve huge rooms on the second floor, and hospital rooms on the main floor.  We do not know who designed it, but our goal is now to figuring out what was the ground-plan of the castle and will design a computer image.  It will be a lot of work to find this out, but will be worth!   

After the mass we went to Temeswar, which is so beautiful, now I understand why it's called small Vienna.   

On Sunday we arrived to Knees, and your church door was open!  We were very lucky to get in to your church, because it was open on that Sunday only, when we were there!   So I had the opportunity to make pictures inside in your church, than asked one of the ladies in the church does she know where your house is located where you used to live.  She pointed to an area where it should be; perhaps she did not understand me.  I have taken some pictures, believed one of the houses belonged to your family, and I found the Jobba mill.  We were just ready to leave Knees, when we saw four ladies waiting for us at the corner.  We stopped the car and we tried to communicate with our little German knowledge and asked them to show us where your house is.  They said they never heard about a person named Alex, but when I told them your name in Hungarian Sandor, they smiled, and told us, that certainly they know you!  Johanna one of the Griffaton ladies (right hand side on the picture) jumped into our car and we drove to your house.  They were in the church, perhaps they heard me asking about you.  So they followed us to help us out.  Johanna invited us for coffee, unfortunately we could not go, because we had to be in Temesvar in the afternoon, and we were already late.  We hugged and kissed hear, and she gave us pastries.  I had a bag of Canadian maple leaf candies in my purse and gave to her.  We offered to drive her back to her house, but she said something like this in her dialect: "Danke, nein ich laufe schnell."  Than we kissed, hugged again and said good bye to her.  What a sweet lady!  The other lady on the left hand side on the picture was in a prison camp in Russia for five years!  She told us it was no heat, food, warm clothing just hard labour. 

On Monday we had the great opportunity to meet with your cousin Bishop Martin Roos in Temeswar.  He showed us an old book, where there is a note from 1803 about the registration of the Baratzhausen land to our Capdebo ancestors.  He also told us, that the Roman Catholic Church will take care about our church in Baratzhausen.  We made pictures with the Bishop.   

After the meeting we were looking for the house of my grandparents in Temeswar.  We were in the right street where their house should be, looked for house number six, unfortunately another house was there under that number.  I hold a small picture of their house in my hand which looked absolutely different to the house which was in under number six.  I was very disappointed, but we found out, that they changed the number of the houses in the street and the number is not six, but fifteen!  It was very touchy to stand in front of the old house, across the street the tennis court, swimming pool where my father used to go......everything looked the same as my father told me.  We met lots of people and I was surprised some of them talked perfect Hungarian!  

We were also in Hatzfeld (Jimbolia) where my grandmother was born and lived.  We arrived there when it was dark, and I do not have good pictures from Hatzfeld.  But we had dinner in one of the great schwabische restaurant!  The food was excellent. 

On Tuesday we went again to Baratzhausen, and because the weather was better we made more pictures, and visited the German cemetery.  Weeds and long grass are all over, I think nobody look after the cemetery.

Than we visited in Arad my grandfather’s grave, and headed back to Szeged, Hungary.  

Unfortunately we spent only four days in Banat, because my relatives had to go back to Hungary, and I also had a busy schedule.  I stayed a few days in my hometown Budapest, and visited my best friend in Germany.   

The whole economy is changed in Romania and life is getting much better there.  We asked in Baratzhausen are there any German people living in the village we were told they all left, but six Hungarian families recently moved in.  We had the chance to talk one of them.  In Romania the food was excellent, and people were kind.  The small roads are still in bad shape....they need at least 20 more years of improvement.  

It was great to travel first time in my life on the places where my ancestors lived.  I decided will go again, next time with my children and with my grandchildren. 

All the Best, 

Eva Hajdu (Capdebo) from Edmonton

[submitted 09 Nov 2008 by Eva Hajdu, published at DVHH.org/Baratzhausen 13 Nov 2008]