Hi Jana, In order to find out whether your family lore is true that this family came from either Alsace or Lorraine, you'll have to begin by researching U.S. documents. Have you checked all of the usual U.S. church documents? Were they Roman Catholic, Protestant or Jewish? Which local parish did they attend? If that church or synagogue no longer exists, where were the records transferred to in the U.S. locality where your ancestral family settled? Have you checked their local newspaper obituaries of the time and their death certificates for place names? Many times a U.S. regional area had a German-language newspaper and far greater information about the person was provided in those papers than was reported in the English-speaking newspapers in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. These papers were distributed even to the smallest towns out into the farmlands of the Midwestern U.S. and other regions, as an example. A Reference Librarian from the Public Library System or your particular State Archives should be able to tell you if those newspapers existed and if they are available on microfilm. Have you checked for their Declaration of Intent and U.S. citizenship papers from the town clerk's office or Court House where they settled? Some of these records have very little-to-none information or some records have provided much information. 1. Beginning Alsace or Lorraine research ~ Look at the bottom of the web page URL for further assistance. ALSACE and LORRAINE - Other Resources http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Alsace-Lorraine-L.htm 2. GeoName searching ~ GeoGen: Surname mapping for Germany and Austria http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx and/or Les Nomes de Famille http://www.geopatronyme.com/index.htmx 3. Making Connections with other researchers ~ GedBas: Die genealogische Datenbasis Enter Surname (or partial spelling) in the Nachname field http://gedbas.genealogy.net/ and/or GeneaNet http://www.geneanet.org/?lang=en and/or RootsWeb's WorldConnect http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi 4. Books and microfilms about the surname Freudenburg ~ Family History Library Catalog Choose "Surname Search" http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp Best of luck in your endeavors! Kathleen ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Jana Vaughan <jvaughan1962@yahoo.com> wrote: > Im trying to find Freudenberg's from germany. I have Joseph my gg grandfather either born in > Prussia or Hanover. b:1835 d:1909 He came to the US in 1849. His father Peter came with him. > I have found the Passenger list where they came from Antwerp into New Orleans. Peter b:1797 > d:after the 1850 census. I have had no luck finding anything in Germany about them. > One of my family members here in the US said they had always heard that they had came over from > Alsace-Lorraine.... > Thanks > Jana ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ