The farm and our ancestors can be traced back in old church registers over 17 generations to 1520. The first “Boomgarden” on the highest ground in the village of Ladekop is mentioned in ancient sources round about 1280, only a few decades after Dutch colonists started settling the fertile marsh lands of the Elbe.
They brought their knowledge and skill in orcharding and the cultivation of wet areas from Holland and in to this part of the world. Very probably they are the first ancestors and owners of the farm by the “Beeke” (Dutch for “stream”) in Ladekop.
It must have been a terrible catastrophe when on the 5th of September 1788 all the inhabitants were at church, a fire broke out in the village. A strong wind spread the fire quickly and it consumed 13 houses as well as the house and barn of my great-great-great-great-grandparents. Only a few months later, on 29th May 1789 the new farmhouse was habitable again. This is still – often renovated– the dominating feature of the homestead.
