Hi All, I'm looking for information about my Great Grandfather. He was Paul Eberhart, and is listed in the US census records, showing a birthplace of France, and sometimes Germany, depending on the census record. He settled in Michigan, and married Sophia Schmitter, from Germany, but who came to the US the year before he did. Family lore has him from Alsace Lorraine. He came to the US in 1854, according to records here, but I have not any idea how to go about locating a birth certificate, or records from there. Any and All help is appreciated. Sharon Bishop

In order to find records for any person you must know the town from which they came.. You need to look for records in the US that give this information. Census data for place of birth is unreliable, as is family lore. You need to begin your search at home, look for the older family relatives who may have first or second hand information. Next look for immigration records, family papers (passports, birth records, death records, photographs, letters, etc.), newspaper articles, church records in the US, etc. You must find this information or you are just looking for a needle in a thousand haystacks. Those of German descent have had good reasons in the past to claim they were from a German speaking area of France (WWI, WWII, to mention two). Good luck in your search, Brian On Sun, September 14, 2008 9:08 pm, Sharon Bishop wrote: > Hi All, > > I'm looking for information about my Great Grandfather. He was Paul > Eberhart, and is listed in the US census records, showing a birthplace of > France, and sometimes Germany, depending on the census record. He settled > in Michigan, and married Sophia Schmitter, from Germany, but who came to > the > US the year before he did. > > Family lore has him from Alsace Lorraine. He came to the US in 1854,

Sharon, There are innumerable ways to try to track your great-grandfather's roots, some of which Brian suggests - time consuming and maybe unsuccessful but you might be surprised. There were and probably are Eberhards in Alsace. Salmgach, Niederlauterbach - Bas Rhin (deptartment number 67). Where in Michigan did he settle? What was his occupation? Neighbors? Where were they from? How old was Paul when he arrived? What was his church affiliation? Protestant (Lutheran?); Catholic? These were strongest in Alsace, but also Mennonite When did he die? Can you get an obituary? My gg grandmother came to the US from Alsace in 1854 and her obit actually gave the name of her birth village. Family lore may be unreliable but there are always reasons for it and gives clues that should be followed up. And while the two wars may have had some influence on German background (country, name, language) cover-ups, this was not as common as one may assume and often depended on the areas - for example if a town in the US had a significant number of German background people no one paid any attention. Google and google and google! Good luck and enjoy! On Sep 15, 2008, at 12:19 PM, brian@amason.net wrote: > In order to find records for any person you must know the town from > which > they came.. You need to look for records in the US that give this > information. Census data for place of birth is unreliable, as is > family > lore. > > You need to begin your search at home, look for the older family > relatives > who may have first or second hand information. Next look for > immigration > records, family papers (passports, birth records, death records, > photographs, letters, etc.), newspaper articles, church records in > the > US, etc. You must find this information or you are just looking for a > needle in a thousand haystacks. > > Those of German descent have had good reasons in the past to claim > they > were from a German speaking area of France (WWI, WWII, to mention > two). > > Good luck in your search, > Brian > > On Sun, September 14, 2008 9:08 pm, Sharon Bishop wrote: >> Hi All, >> >> I'm looking for information about my Great Grandfather. He was Paul >> Eberhart, and is listed in the US census records, showing a >> birthplace of >> France, and sometimes Germany, depending on the census record. He >> settled >> in Michigan, and married Sophia Schmitter, from Germany, but who >> came to >> the >> US the year before he did. >> >> Family lore has him from Alsace Lorraine. He came to the US in 1854, > > > -- > 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