Christine, Swiss Guards have to be Catholic. Maybe he converted. You may be right about not being a Swiss Guard per se. See http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=110403 or if you can't bring this up do advanced google and put in "Swiss Guards" and as exact words "not Swiss" and you should catch it. It comes up as "Papal Guards". I do find the questions and information on A-L so interesting regarding history as well as one's own genealogy! Gloria On 1 23, 2008, at 11:24 AM, Christine Bauman wrote: > I'm curious about this, too, because my great-grandfather's younger > brother > (b. 1841) was (according to family lore given to us by the branch still > residing in Alsace) "sent to Rome to be an honor guard of the Pope. > He had > to walk to Rome himself over the Alps. He had duty there for 8 years > before > becoming ill. He was chosen because he was big, good looking and > strong and > 'had good teeth'. " No matter that the family was Lutheran . . . > > I'm presuming he also had to walk back to Dehlingen, where he died in > 1871. > I'm guessing that he was there roughly starting in 1862. Everything > else > I've seen has said the Swiss Guard had to be Swiss citizens, but it's > an odd > story to "make up," and it would seem there should be some nugget of > truth > to it, if a similar story (well, without the getting ill) was heard in > another family. True, my version doesn't specifically mention the > "Swiss > Guard", but was there any other honor guard at the Vatican? Did the > various > countries have to send a certain number of men out of respect? We > (like > many others in Alsace, I presume) have ancestors who trace back to > Switzerland at some point, so was that sufficient? We've always > wondered > about the story, so I find it interesting that someone else has a > similar > one. > > Christine > Domaine de Curé Luxury Gîtes (vacation apartments) in centuries old farmhouse near Carcassonne, France Jean-Noël Ishida and Agathe Moréchand-Ishida http://www.domaine-cure.com/