The Ungerecht Family Tree

Helba was a village but since 1923 is a neighborhood on the north side of Meiningen, Germany. Located near the center of the country, it is in the Thueringen forest. The main church is in Meiningen. Our Ungerechts lived here 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).

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.)

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.