Off to search for family Part 2

Trip Start Mar 13, 2008
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Trip End Mar 23, 2008


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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Neuchâtel is the major city right next to La Chaux de Fondes, and to get there, you go through the Jura part of the Alps. It was definitely a beautiful drive, and I only thought we were going to fall off the mountains a couple of times. Geoff's great grandmother lived on 22 Rue de Fleur, which amazingly was easy enough to find. The town was pretty much deserted, but we took lots of photos of the area, thinking that Grandma Juju may have gone to the school up the street, but who knows. Afterward, we tried to get some lunch, but in small towns in Europe they take a siesta apparently around 2 pm. We got a coffee and got some info from the city info desk, which described the town as a center of watch making (which made sense since there were watchmakers in the family). We then went to the cemetery to find any Haug's- either Ida Louise, or Armond (Grandma Juju's parents). We spoke with the woman that holds the records for the cemetery, and unfortunately (between Geoff's broken French, and my broken German) it seemed that they likely died too early. These graves were from the 1930s onward. Apparently in Europe they turn the graves after a certain number of years, especially if the family does not renew the lease on the plot. It made sense, but we still walked the grounds looking for some sign of a Haug. We had a local kitty cat take us on our guide, but she turned out to be little help. Very friendly, but not really able to read apparently.  We did not find any signs of the Haugs after a few hours of looking, and it started to get really cold out when we returned to the car.
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