I am trying to find the origins of an ancestor who migrated to America in 1742 at the reported age of 26. I do not have a town or even a certainty that Alsace or Lorraine are the right regions. My purposes in writing are: 1. To leave a record that may help other researchers in the future, and 2. To ask if any on this list might provide guidance in pursuing this. His surname was spelled variously, depending on the native language of the writer and the idiosyncrasies of 18th century writers. He, himself, was illiterate and would not have had a preferred spelling for his name. (He learned to writ the letter D by the time he made his will.) Fortunately, his given name has only two variations, David & Davitt. For some time, I believed that the best clue to his origins was his statement in his 1754 New Jersey naturalization petition the he was "born in the Territories of the Elector Palatine." I have reasons (discussed below) to doubt that this is the whole story. He is listed in Strassburger-Hinke as having arrived on the Loyal Judith in September 1742 out of Rotterdam via Cowes. He appears on the "A", :B" & "C" lists as: David KEEL, David KELL, & Davitt SCHALL. Thorough analysis of the lists substantiate that these are all the same man. To reach Rotterdam, it's most likely that he would have traveled down the Rhine River. This implies that he began his journey from very near the river. In America, his surname was spelled as: KAIL, KALE, CALE, & CAIL, and a son's name was spelled CAILE & CAILLES. One branch of his descendants use the surname CALES. The main reason I doubt the Palatine (Rheinland-Pfalz) origin of his family is that this surname is very rare in Germany today, by any spelling. It is, however, more common on the southern bank of the Rhine River. Thank you for reading this. _rt_/)