Where is the wine land?

A few years ago I was researching Jack’s family history and found mention in a distant cousin’s diary of “wine land near Vienna” that the family supposedly owned. We couldn’t find any other reference to it, and it’s become our persistent joke whenever we wish we had more resources to do the things we want to do: “Gotta find that wine land!”

Here in St. Thomas I’ve been digging through tax records to find where our various family groups lived and when. I found some success with one branch and with the help of Rob at the Caribbean Genealogy Library and some early maps Jack and I located the house my Liggett family lived in. It’s now a jewelry store in the middle of the main tourist shopping district in the oldest part of town. My heart went pitterpat to see the house my great great great grandfather was born in. How cool is that!

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We also climbed the hill to Bluebeard’s castle, similar to Blackbeard’s castle, also built by the Danes as a lookout over the harbor. It’s now part of a hotel and not open for tours, but the significance for me is that our ancestor Alexander Liggett briefly owned it in 1856.

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It was a very steep hot walk but the view was worth it. Escape Velocity with the yellow canvas is visible just to the left of the pirate ships.

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4 Comments

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4 Responses to Where is the wine land?

  1. Matt

    Wine country near Vienna is The SE region near Slovenia and Hungary as far as I know. Sivi pinot is a common specialty of all 3 countries in that region.

  2. What a beautiful anchorage! I love traveling back in time with you. XO

  3. Anita

    You must be jumping for joy Marce. That is so cool.

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