>Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:47:09 -0400 >From: "Marilyn Potthast" <omaandopa06@att.net> >Subject: Re: [A-L] Holle > My question to you is even if you have the town where they came from in Alsace-Lorraine who do you get that information. I have my gr grandfathers birth certificate where he was born. How do I go about from there. I also can't find the ship he came over on which was in the late 1850's. The Birth Certificate says Cosswiller. So where do I go from there? Anyone can help me would be appreciated. Hi Marilyn, You've had good responses about starting to research your family in Cosswiller; I hope you'll pay attention to all of the suggestions. To go along with the "serious" research, here are some fun things to do. Try a google search for <Cosswiller> (my Michelin 1cm:200000 km atlas-453 pages gives only ONE by that spelling; hurrah!!!) You'll find "about 120,000 English and French and German pages for Cosswiller". Then click on google's "Images" in upper left corner of the search page. There are "about 594" images dealing with Cosswiller: the village, the houses, the church, maps, etc. Having checked out Robert Behra's Alsace Communities A-Z (link posted by Charlie Sheridan earlier today) which is now hosted by Rootsweb, you noted that when Cosswiller was under German rule, its name was Koßweiler (Kossweiler). You can also google that. You'll find an additional 75 webpages dealing with the village when it was Germanic. Keep your eyes open as you peruse those 120 thousand websites, for a locally "grown" genealogy website for Cosswiller. You may be as lucky as we descendants of residents in the Alsace village of Weiterswiller (aka: Weitersweiler.) If you'd like to see what CAN be found online, check out this website: <http://pagesperso-orange.fr/f.s.weiters/SiteWeiters/accueil.html> and take a look at the "Généalogie" links at left. WOW! Not only transcribed parish records; civil registration (1793-1872); censuses from 1836/41/46/51/56/61/66; and Jewish records...but ALSO the notarial records of M. Dieterich (1804-1830) and M. Klipfel (the first two years of 1830-1839!) You did not include any personal information (name, dob, spouse, children, location in the US) on your immigrant from Cosswiller, Marilyn; so none of us can comment specifically on your family after immigration. Good luck, Marilyn, in finding your own treasures online as well as via LDS and other sources. Cari Thomas <western37@cox.net>