The Ungerecht Family Tree

Helba was a separate village, but since 1923 it has been a neighborhood in the north part of Meiningen, Germany. Located near the center of the country, it is in the Thueringen forest. The main church is in Meiningen which also has the palace for the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. Our Ungerechts lived in Helba in the 1700's and 1800's, being mayor at times, but before that they came from Walldorf. (Maternal lines come from other villages in the area, still sorting through all that). Both Helba and Walldorf were located in East Germany during communist times, being only a few miles from the border with West Germany.

Walldorf is about 5 miles west of Helba, not a big deal today, but probably fairly major back in the time of serfs and guilds. (Do not confuse this with Waldorf, with a single 'l', such as the Waldorf Astoria, a well-known hotel. There is also a Walldorf in Bavaria, that is a larger town of 20,000 people. This is Walldorf / Werra of the Saxe-Meiningen region, with about 2,200 people.) A smaller town of Wallbach is just across the road to the north, this is where the Erbes came from.

Walldorf is a very old village, the earliest records of it start in the year 982. That's about as early as such records were kept, so who knows when it was first established. It is known for its fortified church, or kirchenburg. It is a church on a hill, surrounded by walls. Again, we don't really know how old it is, but it was centuries old before it was rebuilt in 1648. Unfortunately, the church itself was almost totally destroyed in a fire in 2012. Fortunately for us, the records it contained had been copied and stored at the church headquarters in Eisenach.

Here is the official Walldorf-Werra web site, but it is only in German.

Helba/Meiningen and Walldorf are not far from the larger town of Eisenach (pop. 42,000). BMW had a factory there which was taken over by the Soviets, during communist times they made the Wartburg. That was named after a nearby castle, which is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The Wartburg castle is where Martin Luther stayed in 1521 after being excommunicated by the Catholic church. Eisenach is also the the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach.