I would suggest the name of the village was Cosswiller (or Koßweiler in German), not Cosswillen. Cosswiller is in northern Alsace about 12 miles W of the city of Strasbourg. StrasBourg is on the Rhein River which is the border with the Granduchy of Baden (old Germany). It is about 30 miles to the north to border with The Pfalz. The online LDS Family History Library catalog shows they have these records for that village. These microfilms can be rented at your local LDS Family History Center. ====================== Registres de l'état civil, 1793-1882 Cosswiller (Bas-Rhin). Officer de l'état civil (Main Author) Civil registration of ten-year indexes, births, marriages, deaths for Cosswiller, Bas-Rhin, France. Text in French and German. Kirchenbuch, 1712-1738 Evangelische Kirche Koßweiler (Kr. Molsheim) (Main Author) Parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials for Cosswiller, Bas-Rhin, France. Text in German. ====================== IMO, the ship the family came over is interesting detail. However, from what I've seen, especially for ship passenger lists in that time period, there is little information on the ship record, so you are not missing much. At 12:17 PM 1/21/2008, you wrote: >From: Marilyn & Fritz Potthast <omaandopa06@att.net> >Subject: Re: [A-L] Fw: [GERMAN-SURNAMES] CHRISMAN/CHRISTMAN > =/CHRISTMANN/CRISMAN >To: alsace-lorraine@rootsweb.com > >My Great Grandfather's birth certificate shows >Cosswillen. This is suppose to be North east of >France on the border of Germany. His name is in >French but I know he was German. I cannot find >any ship that he came over on so far. Don't >know if he came as a young man or with his >parents. He was born in 1834. His parents >names were Pierre Christmann and Elizabeth >Strehl (we think). Spelling was not too clear >for his mother's maiden name. I wonder if there >is a place to write and see if I could get a >clearer birth certificate or anything else. Would you know?