Hi, I just joined the group. I live in Hannibal, Missouri, USA. In case you are not familiar with Hannibal that is the town that Mark Twain wrote about in his stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I have an ancestor named Charles Fredrick BLATTAU. He married in 5 Oct 1847 Anna Christina KAISER. I am not sure if they married in St. Louis, Missouri or before they arrived. They had a daughter, Augusta BLATTAU who was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861. In the US census it states that Augusta's Father was born in France, but in another source it states that he was from Germany. BLATTAU sounds more French than German, so I thought maybe the Alsace-Lorraine region might be the answer to both since it has been part of both countries at one time or another. I do not know when either Charles or his wife were born, but if I have to guess I would say sometime in the late 1820's since they were married in 1847. I am also thinking that there were more children before Augusta since she was not born until 1861, about 14 years after marriage. So, I am also looking for possible children with the name BLATTAU being born in the 1850's. Is BLATTAU a familiar name to anyone doing research in Alsace-Lorraine area, or is it still an existing name to anyone that is living there right now? Any help or direction would be appreciated> Nancy Cruse

Hi Nancy -- it sounds like you need to do a bit more American research, before trying to "jump the pond." 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. Have you found the naturalization applications? Often the first and second application contain much more detail than the final certificate. How about obituaries, in particular those published in small local newspapers, church publications, or German or French newspapers? Many of the old newspapers are available on microfilm. For instance, see the holdings of the NYU: http://library.nyu.edu/research/german/. These microfilms will often be available by Inter-Library Loan. Talk to your librarian about local policies. For much more about this subject, see: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/european-research.html All the best, Valorie PS: My husband has KEISERs in his line also. His people came from Ostfriesland to Illinois in the 1850s, also by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. More and more of those New Orleans immigration records are indexed, so be sure to search those. There are a number of BLATTEAU records at Ancestry, which I can send to you privately if you don't have access to them. On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 6:51 PM, Nancy Cruse <ncruse@socket.net> wrote: > Hi, > > I just joined the group. I live in Hannibal, Missouri, USA. In case > you are not familiar with Hannibal that is the town that Mark Twain > wrote about in his stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. > > I have an ancestor named Charles Fredrick BLATTAU. He married in 5 Oct > 1847 Anna Christina KAISER. I am not sure if they married in St. Louis, > Missouri or before they arrived. They had a daughter, Augusta BLATTAU > who was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861. In the US census it states > that Augusta's Father was born in France, but in another source it > states that he was from Germany. BLATTAU sounds more French than > German, so I thought maybe the Alsace-Lorraine region might be the > answer to both since it has been part of both countries at one time or > another. > > I do not know when either Charles or his wife were born, but if I have > to guess I would say sometime in the late 1820's since they were married > in 1847. I am also thinking that there were more children before > Augusta since she was not born until 1861, about 14 years after > marriage. So, I am also looking for possible children with the name > BLATTAU being born in the 1850's. > > Is BLATTAU a familiar name to anyone doing research in Alsace-Lorraine > area, or is it still an existing name to anyone that is living there > right now? > > Any help or direction would be appreciated> > > Nancy Cruse -- Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=507013560 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/valoriez MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/valoriez Genealogy Blog: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/ All my pages: http://valorie.zimmerman.googlepages.com

Hi Nancy, Here are three sources for you and your search of Charles F. Blattau that you may not have used yet. 1. www.oakvilleblackwalnut.blogspot.com/2006/08/william-holtermann.html 2. http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/libsrc/stl4th.htm 3. Just GOOGLE Charles Frederick Blattau and the very first listing that comes up will be Digitzation Projects Philologic Results. Right under the title will be Charles' name. He was an interesting person if this is the same one. The dates fit with what you have told us. The two sites I listed above can be found further down the page. Have fun. Narda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nancy Cruse" <ncruse@socket.net> To: <ALSACE-LORRAINE@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 9:51 PM Subject: [A-L] Searching BLATTAU > Hi, > > I just joined the group. I live in Hannibal, Missouri, USA. In case > you are not familiar with Hannibal that is the town that Mark Twain > wrote about in his stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. > > I have an ancestor named Charles Fredrick BLATTAU. He married in 5 Oct > 1847 Anna Christina KAISER. I am not sure if they married in St. Louis, > Missouri or before they arrived. They had a daughter, Augusta BLATTAU > who was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861. In the US census it states > that Augusta's Father was born in France, but in another source it > states that he was from Germany. BLATTAU sounds more French than > German, so I thought maybe the Alsace-Lorraine region might be the > answer to both since it has been part of both countries at one time or > another. > > I do not know when either Charles or his wife were born, but if I have > to guess I would say sometime in the late 1820's since they were married > in 1847. I am also thinking that there were more children before > Augusta since she was not born until 1861, about 14 years after > marriage. So, I am also looking for possible children with the name > BLATTAU being born in the 1850's. > > Is BLATTAU a familiar name to anyone doing research in Alsace-Lorraine > area, or is it still an existing name to anyone that is living there > right now? > > Any help or direction would be appreciated> > > Nancy Cruse > > -- > Resources for Alsace-Lorraine list members: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Alsace-Lorraine-L.htm > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ALSACE-LORRAINE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message