On Wednesday 02 July 2008 8:19:12 am Freemyer, Cindy wrote: > I deeply apologize to any and all that I may have offended in quoting the > only information I have that is documented about my relative below. I have > not had the luxury of traveling overseas and trusted the information as > recorded about "Strasburg" was correct. My intent was honorable and > sincerely meant to seek help and "direction" from this group that I see so > much activity from. I've searched the list archives, and don't see a response to your original query, Cindy. Did someone write you a nasty private reply? If so, please disregard them. This is a great list, and you'll find the experts here -- *helpful* experts. > Unfortunately, it took me many weeks to find the courage to ask my question > for fear that I would appear "dumb" and my fear was confirmed. I will no > longer be on the list and again I am sorry for any offense. For those > that felt the need to chastise me, I think I now understand (at least as > far as I can tell from the vast information on the internet) that Strasburg > and Strasbourg are not the same??? My family came from the Alsace-Lorraine > region...that is really all I know for sure as the family is not united on > their country of origin. I will try to solve the mysteries on my own. As in the rest of genealogy, you have to be flexible in the spellings of towns, cities, even regions, because they have changed over time, and especially have been mis-spelled here in the US. The "dumb" ones, literally, do not ask questions. By posting, you have proven you aren't dumb, LOL! For all European research, you must have a village name, or at least a small region with a few villages, because that is where all the records are kept! There are few to no departement, county or region-wide censuses or other general surveys such as our US Census records. So, you must do your American or Canadian research, before trying to "jump the pond" back to Europe. I have lots of ideas of where to find that information here: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/european-research.html Most of this information has come from the researchers on this list. For more specific information about the Alsace, see: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/alsace.html I hope that this information is helpful to you. Valorie <----- also functioning as the list administrator -- please write to Alsace-Lorraine-admin@rootsweb.com if you are having any list problems ::snip old::