Leaving family houses behind...

It seems that every now and then, our families have to let go their original properties, usually known as "family houses'. A number of reasons can be invoked: difficulties in dividing the property between the heirs (leaving it to the eldest child seems less rational nowadays), financial difficulties, move from country side to city life, emigration, etc.

The latest - sad - news is that our family house in the south of Chile is up for sale: Las Hortensias (picture here shortly) was a property acquired by my great-grand-father Max Hannig Ulriksen (I once found an old who's who in Santiago that mentions his original ownnership. Does someone own a copy of that book (early 1940s)?). It is located in camino a Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Region del Bio Bio, Chile.
My grand-father Otto Schulz Jara bought part of the property from his father-in-law and expanded it considerably during all his life. My mother was raised there, and I used to spend my holidays there as a kid with all my cousins: there were rooms with 2 to 5 beds all over the place, and my grand-parents kept expanding the house, and adding buildings. Well all good things I suppose have to come to an end.

Researching the Internet, you'll find a number of properties that used to be in the family and that are now gone. Rojachhof, in southern Carinthia, Austria was the property of my wife's family for over 200 years, the von und zu Leobenegg branch. It is now a delightful hotel... There are even traces of the original Leobenegg castle, now in total ruins, not far from there.

David von Dietrich was born at Drauhofen, a property bought by Thomas von Leobenegg to give to his daughter, David's grand-mother. It is now a state agronomy school in Carinthia for girls... Well, at least people are taking care of the properties, and the many descendants of the original owners can go and visit.

Do you get as emotional with the different appartments you have lived in ? Probably not. Hence, let's just realize that moving on is part of life.

ps: picture on the top left was taken this summer at a friend's family house. Hopefully they'll be able to keep their house.

Family names researched in this post: von DIETRICH, HANNIG, von und zu LEOBENEGG, SCHULZ, ULRIKSEN