good advice you have received from others.................I'll add two of my own.... tombstones - my great grandfather and great grandmother had the names of their villages in Elsass carved on their tombstones!? even had her maiden name on there. was he in the Civil War?? if so, he might have applied for a pension -? another great grandfather applied for a pension and evidently had to have a birth certificate.? he wrote to his church in Germany and they sent back a transcript which satisfied the U.S. Government to grant the pension.? that transcript indicated his parents names and occupations.?? what a find!?? we uncovered all this by requesting the Civil War info from the National Archives. happy digging..................Helen -----Original Message----- From: gbishida <gfb-ishida@gol.com> To: alsace-lorraine@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:18 am Subject: Re: [A-L] Paul Eberhart, born 1831 or 32, Emigrated 1854 to US 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 lu ck 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 -- 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