I cannot get my great-grandfather back over the ocean. He came here between 1848 and 1852 with a wife and children, but I cannot find a manifest. He moved a lot, and so did his son, my grandfather (at least 15 addresses in 20 years, with children born in 4 different towns besides Philadelphia). We have no documents or artifacts or anything from him. The last name is so common, Ault, and happens in so many different languages, that I think I will never have a clue where he came from. (He did always say he was German.) The situation is sort of like family going out West and never being heard from again. Elizabeth C Marleen Van Horne wrote: > German genealogy being what it is, you have to know where your ancestor > was born and lived before immigrating to North America, in order to do > any research there. If you do not have that information, no paid > researcher can find them for you. > > . . . >

Elizabeth, We also ran into a similar problem when trying to determine where my husbands' 2nd-great-grandfather was born. It actually took us over four intense years of looking to find the answer. Maybe knowing how we over came this issue may help you. If you have not already - - Have you located a death recording that might indicate where your AULT is from. - You may want to see if you can locate him on a manifest using his middle name rather than first (which we did finally find our ancestor under); or check using his initials. - However, that did not help since his birth location was not listed on the manifest, so we than attained a copy of his Nationalization File. His birth town was also not listed there but it did help us narrow the area within Germany to Baden; - For years we were unable to locate a death notice for him. With the help of the library staff of the town where he died (which in our case was Philadelphia) they located the death notice, which greatly helped as the death notice indicated a town that he was from - but of course the town name was miss spelt and it could not be determined what the town actually was. We posted the information we know on message boards and mailing lists and received some great assistance on narrowing what the town name may have been, but nothing for sure. Some one suggested that we contact the Badisches Generallandesarchiv located in Karlsruhe with the information we knew. By then we knew a lot more as we also had his date of birth, death notice and a miss spelt town name. In less than a month we heard back from them with the answer! They told us where he was born and who his parents were. For 18 Euros they sent us a copy of the record. Hopefully our experience helps you break down your stone wall. -----Original Message----- From: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Cunningham Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 9:17 AM To: baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [BW] Research question I cannot get my great-grandfather back over the ocean. He came here between 1848 and 1852 with a wife and children, but I cannot find a manifest. He moved a lot, and so did his son, my grandfather (at least 15 addresses in 20 years, with children born in 4 different towns besides Philadelphia). We have no documents or artifacts or anything from him. The last name is so common, Ault, and happens in so many different languages, that I think I will never have a clue where he came from. (He did always say he was German.) The situation is sort of like family going out West and never being heard from again. Elizabeth C Marleen Van Horne wrote: > German genealogy being what it is, you have to know where your ancestor > was born and lived before immigrating to North America, in order to do > any research there. If you do not have that information, no paid > researcher can find them for you. > > . . . > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

A belated thank you for your response. I will have to go to Trenton to see if I can find a death record for my great-grandfather. My grandfather's death certificate is not helpful. A son from his first marriage filled it in, and I have no idea whether the facts are true. Grandfather was supposed to have been born in Brooklyn in 1851, 1852, 1853 depending on the record you look at. I tried all the volumes of the Brooklyn 1855 census but had no luck I have looked for a manifest, but will try again using your suggestions. Elizabeth C Carlisle Danzeisen's wrote: > Elizabeth, > We also ran into a similar problem when trying to determine where my > husbands' 2nd-great-grandfather was born. It actually took us over four > intense years of looking to find the answer. > > Maybe knowing how we over came this issue may help you. If you have not > already - > - Have you located a death recording that might indicate where your AULT is > from. > - You may want to see if you can locate him on a manifest using his middle > name rather than first (which we did finally find our ancestor under); or > check using his initials. > - However, that did not help since his birth location was not listed on the > manifest, so we than attained a copy of his Nationalization File. His birth > town was also not listed there but it did help us narrow the area within > Germany to Baden; > - For years we were unable to locate a death notice for him. With the help > of the library staff of the town where he died (which in our case was > Philadelphia) they located the death notice, which greatly helped as the > death notice indicated a town that he was from - but of course the town name > was miss spelt and it could not be determined what the town actually was. > We posted the information we know on message boards and mailing lists and > received some great assistance on narrowing what the town name may have > been, but nothing for sure. Some one suggested that we contact the > Badisches Generallandesarchiv located in Karlsruhe with the information we > knew. By then we knew a lot more as we also had his date of birth, death > notice and a miss spelt town name. In less than a month we heard back from > them with the answer! They told us where he was born and who his parents > were. For 18 Euros they sent us a copy of the record. > > Hopefully our experience helps you break down your stone wall. > > -----Original Message----- > From: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Elizabeth > Cunningham > Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 9:17 AM > To: baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [BW] Research question > > I cannot get my great-grandfather back over the ocean. He came here > between 1848 and 1852 with a wife and children, but I cannot find a > manifest. He moved a lot, and so did his son, my grandfather (at least > 15 addresses in 20 years, with children born in 4 different towns > besides Philadelphia). We have no documents or artifacts or anything > from him. The last name is so common, Ault, and happens in so many > different languages, that I think I will never have a clue where he came > from. (He did always say he was German.) The situation is sort of like > family going out West and never being heard from again. > > Elizabeth C > >