How a Family History Trip to Germany Revealed Meyer Connections to the Statue of Liberty, 400 Years of History

Originally published on June 1, 2026 | Last updated on June 1, 2026

Family History Trip to Germany to Tracing Meyer Ancestral Roots Expands to Switzerland, France’s Alsace-Lorraine, including the Bartholdi Museum, and family connections with Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the man behind the Creation of the Statue of Liberty.

We often travel to places because we love certain documentaries or social media feeds about that particular destination. Heritage travel is one of the most meaningful trips.

This piece features Walter G. Meyer on a family trip to Germany searching for Meyer Family connections of 400 years, an extended ancestral journey through Switzerland, and France.

Visiting Wasenweiler, The Beginning of a European Ancestral Journey, 400 Years of History

During the summer of 2023, I was hopping around Europe when one of my cousins contacted me. She said she was going on a bicycle trek through the Italian Alps, and if I was going to be in Germany, and she was in Northern Italy, we should meet in our ancestral hometown and look up family history. She invited her sister to join come us.

Wasenweiler, the town from which our great-grandfather, Heinrich Meyer, came, is so small that it only has one inn, and that was booked, so we got a place in Freiburg, about 15 km away. We spent a day doing research at the Diocese of Freiburg and found some family records.

The next day, we went to Wasenweiler and were wandering around the cemetery of one of the old churches in town, hoping to see some names we’d recognize from our family tree. A man approached us and asked what we were doing. We told him. He suggested we talk to Ernst, the unofficial town historian who might be able to help us. He tried to call Ernst, but got no answer. He said Ernst often didn’t answer his phone, but he was sure Ernst wouldn’t mind if we just came by. The man gave us the address and directions.

Finding Heritage Traces Through Marriage Records, Back to 1628

I rang the bell and introduced myself as Herr Meyer. He greeted us like we were long-lost relatives. He had managed both of the Catholic churches in Wasenweiler and had indexed their records. Just off the top of his head, he knew more Meyer family history than we did.

He still had keys to the churches and offered to take us to them. He showed us the baptismal font where our great-grandfather, Heinrich, was baptized in 1856. He took us to the older church where our eighth great-grandparents were married in 1628! (That church was built in 1492, and he showed us the cornerstone to prove it!).

The marriage record listed it as being “the Holy Roman Empire.” Germany didn’t exist yet. Ernst even played the old organ for us. He clearly enjoyed having interested people with whom to share his knowledge.

Meyer Family Tree Traced back to 1603 from the Village of Wasenweiler

He told us a lot about the family, including that our earliest known ancestor, Adam Mayer, had come to Wasenweiler from Switzerland in 1603. One of his daughters had married the first Meyer in our tree. The tree gets a little confusing because my Meyer ancestors married people named Mayer, Meier, Schandelmeier, and Schindelmeyer.

But the most amazing thing Ernst told us was our connection to the Statue of Liberty. He said that if we really wanted to learn Meyer family history, we should cross the Rhine into France and visit the city of Colmar, where many of our relatives lived. That part of Alsace-Lorraine changed hands many times in the many wars France had with what is now Germany.

Visiting the Bartholdi Museum and Family Connections with Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the man behind the Statue of Liberty

Ernst said we would see the Meyer name on many businesses—the Meyer Florist, Meyer Bakery, etc, and that for a long time their mayor was a man name Gilbert Meyer(which also happens to be the name of my father and brother) and that as far as Ernst knew, these were all relatives—that he thought ours was the only Meyer family in that region.

Ernst particularly suggested we visit the Bartholdi Museum, dedicated to the works of sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the man who created the Statue of Liberty. His grandmother was a Meyer, apparently from our family. So Auguste is apparently a distant cousin. We had no idea!

That made the trip and all that we learned about family history even more special. Now I notice the Statue of Liberty everywhere—in movies, TV shows, ads, on protest signs, and more—and I see it in a way I never did before I learned my familial connection to it.

The Meyer Family Circle: A Story of 155 Years Learned Through a Family History Trip to Germany,

As luck would have it, shortly after I returned from that trip to Europe, my nephew got transferred by his company to Freiburg. It is crazy that the Meyer family has come full circle back to where his great-grandfather lived 155 years ago!

My nephew and his wife are now carrying on the research into family history. They found that Heinrich listed his occupation as a shoemaker. He left for the United States to avoid being drafted into whichever of the many wars that part of Germany was having with neighboring France at that moment. His documents say he had an uncle in the United States, and now we would like to find out who that person was—or did Heinrich just make up a relative knowing it would help his case to emigrate? He ended up a steelworker in Pittsburgh, as did his son and grandson (my grandfather and uncle).

Final Thoughts (Editor’s Note)

This is more than a family history—it’s a reminder of how deeply travel can reshape identity. What begins as a simple visit to an ancestral village in Germany unfolds into a 400-year thread connecting Switzerland, France, and even one of the most iconic symbols in the world, the Statue of Liberty. The Meyer family story shows how history is rarely linear; it lives in church records, forgotten towns, and chance encounters with local historians. For readers, it highlights the power of heritage travel—not just to discover where we come from, but to reframe how we see the world today. Traveling to Europe goes beyond scenery, history, and culture.

You can follow Walter G. Meyer, the San Diego-based writer, to learn more about his numerous interesting projects around travel and adventures.

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