Finding the Vonier Farm
Our (Sue and my) great great grandfather, Andreas Vonier was born in Schruns, Austria on October 13, 1822. We were thrilled to be able to locate his birthplace! How did we find this remote site? It was with the help of Joe Springer of the Mennonite Historical Library in Goshen, Indiana, and the Österreich Voralberger Landesarchiv, which noted the house number, 273, but no street name on Andreas' birth record. An town official in Schruns located an old plan which translated the house number to a current address, Plattsweg 3. Driving up there involved numerous scary hairpin turns. We were finally close but found that our car would not be able to negotiate the steep gravel road, so we had to park and walk. Not too far up the road, we caught sight of a building. The shutters were all closed. This photo shows the separate barn. Marlin noted that there were newish roofs. Probably the owner checks on the place from time to time, but the driveway was overgrown with vegetation. No one had ...