It's interesting to hear that the Luxembourg/Trier Province area is overwhelmingly Catholic. My own Adrian line certainly did not remain with the Church, if they were infact originally Catholic. (My gr-gr-grandfather, Peter, one of the immigrant family, abandoned his first wife and children, though I'm unclear if he divorced and remarried or simply lived with his second wife. His brother, Michael, did divorce and remarry, so this is hardly behavior you'd expect of practicing Catholics.) But it had also peaked my interest earlier that someone had posted an Adrian line from Germany to Pennsylvania. I had thought this same area around the cuurent boundaries of Germany/France/Luxembourg was also an area of Mennonite activity & one from which many immigrants removed from to Pennsylvania. I can't find the post I recall seeing about the PA Adrians to see if it stated what part of Germany they were from, but wonder if they would have come from this general area as well. Anyone have a clue as to how the Adrian surname is distributed in Europe today? By the way Pete, the man you thought looked like your father is one of Reinhart Adrian's sons, who lived in Cassville, Wisconsin (and was a grandson of Gerhardt, the eldest of the immigrant sons). There was a strong resemblance among many of the Adrian men. My grandfather took strongly after his father & grandfather and he did have a tanned complexion (and so does my brother) which may be similar to what you described as an olive complexion common in your family. Sara Holmes At 01:49 PM 3/6/99 -0600, Pete Seaba wrote: > >On Sat, 6 Mar 1999, Sara J. Holmes wrote: > >> I am descended from Michael and Elizabeth (Willkom) Adrian who came from >> the Province Trier/Luxembourg area around 1852. Two of their sons, Mathias >> and Gerhardt, settled in Grant County, Wisconsin, while Peter settled in >> Sumner, Iowa (and his descendants in neighboring Fayette County, IA) and >> later with a second family in Michigan City, Indiana. The fourth son, >> Michael, moved to Chippewa Co., Wisconsin. I do not know what religion >> they originally followed, but they do fit into the pattern Pete Seaba >> described for the German Catholics coming to the Dubuque area of Iowa. > >Even today you have to look long and hard to find anything other than >the Roman Catholic religion practiced in this area! > > I >> still have some photos of these Adrians, including three of the immigrant >> sons, online at http://home.att.net/~sjholmes/Adrian.html > >In the large group, the man in the back, second from the left, looks >like my late father. It is difficult to tell complexion from b/w >scanned photos. > >> My recently found on-line cousin, Farrell Adrian, said she once stayed in >> Trier (which is listed as Peter Adrian's birthplace in Civil War records) >> and recalls that the emperor Hadrian had gone to the area and we have >> wondered if the origin of the Adrian surname is somehow connected to >> Hadrian. Perhaps one of my cousins (Farrell, Pat?) has more time to post >> more details on this line. > >It is one of those cute facts from the encyclopaedia; Adrian IS derived >from Hadrian. AND the Porta Nigra (Black Wall), built in Roman times, >stands in central Trier. But can we prove a direct line back to Hadrian?? >It's the stuff that makes nice filler in a family history. > >I would not rely on Trier as being the birthplace. A Civil War >record is primary evidence of service in the Civil War, not place >of birth. Often I found ancestors citing a town that would be >recognized, such as the county seat. > >> Sara Holmes >> Metairie, Louisiana > >Pete Seaba >Iowa City, IA > >