Hello, a few precisions on Brian's post : > Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 23:19:23 -0600 (CST) > From: brian@amason.net > >> said he was born in Alsace. He was French and his native tongue was >> French. > Many Alsatians native tongue up until post WWII was Alsatian. Which > is a > Germanic dialect. Alsatians certainly spoke French and German, but > Alsatian would have been the language of everyday use. Before WWI, very few Alsatians in the countryside understood French. They spoke dialect and understood German. Particularly the newspapers and the Catholic and Protestant worships were mainly in German (with some local exceptions). >> Loraine borders partly on Hesse-Darmstadt. No, Lorraine borders with Palatinate and Saarland. >> Alsace and Lorraine were a part of Prussia for a period of time. Alsace and Moselle were part of the German Empire ruled by the Prussians, between 1871 and 1918. > Your best bet is to take some time and learn something about > Alsace-Lorraine during the period of time your ancestors lived there Sure! Again some useful websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace --- some inaccurracies http://mapage.noos.fr/ephil/uk_alsa1.htm http://www.alsace-lorraine.org/historiquea.htm --- in French and a few earlier posts: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/ALSACE-LORRAINE/2007-03/1174813398 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/ALSACE-LORRAINE/2007-03/1174840343 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/ALSACE-LORRAINE/2008-01/1199385822 Happy surfing! Etienne