I would like to find out more about my 3rd great grandfather, Robert WINTER b. 1826 in Germany.   The census records all state he immigrated from Baden, Germany.  He was married to a Louisa b. Bet. 1836 - 1837 (maiden name unknown) before 1857 as the first child was born by then.  Their first child, also named Robert was b. 1857.  All 3 immigrated to America and show up in Cook Co. Illinois for the 1860, 1870 and 1880 census. If anyone knows of what records I should search or knows about the family, please let me know what to do.  I am quite good at researching in America, but overseas I dont know what I'm doing.  Thanks for any help, LC

LC, For quickest read, skip down to BINGO (maybe). WINTER is currently the 68th most common surname in Germany based on a calculation you can do yourself at geo surname mapping germany It is widely spread including over every county (Kreis) in the modern German province of Baden-Wuerttemberg. I suggest you dig deeper in the U.S. first. If you can find the application for naturalization for Robert WINTER, you may find it tells his birth and/or residence village in Baden. Although naturalization was a federal process, the applications were usually filed in local county offices/courts. I'm sure if you google a bit, you'll find a much fuller (and more accurate) explanation than I could give you of how to search for these papers in the U.S. Other options include obituaries, especially in a local (Chicago or Chicago suburb?) German-language newspaper. And what about church records from where they attended church after arriving here? They might show his town of origin. Another idea is to see were neighbors/relatives came from. Have you found his arrival in the Castle Garden database? This latter record will not show the village of origin but will show who was on the same ship. Maybe a neighbor or relative will show up on the same ship. That's a start. It often takes many tidbits to narrow down your search in the Old Country. All of that said, I decided to check out the Emigration from Southwest Germany database. Some people actually followed all the rules and registered to emigrate. BINGO (maybe). In the database, I found a good (no, a very good) possibility for your family, including home village of Rheinmuenster. For database see Here are the details: Emigrant identification 263882 First name Rob Last name Winter Emigration year 1857 Country of destination Nordamerika Last place of residence Rheinmünster Title ? Comments insgesamt 3 Personen; Continent Nordamerika County nicht zuweisbar Archive Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe District Schwarzach Emigrant identification 263887 First name Creszentia Last name Winter Emigration year 1857 Country of destination Nordamerika Last place of residence Rheinmünster Second name Bruder Reference Robert (Ehefrau von) Sex w Age at emigration 21 Continent Nordamerika County nicht zuweisbar Archive Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe District Schwarzach Emigrant identification 263888 First name Robert Last name Winter Emigration year 1857 Country of destination Nordamerika Last place of residence Rheinmünster Reference Robert (Sohn von) Sex m Age at emigration 1 Continent Nordamerika County nicht zuweisbar Archive Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe District Schwarzach Why do I believe this is a very good candidate for your target search? Based on your information and what I see above, here are the matches: +Emigration year fits with your imigration year. +Surname +Names of both father and son +Birth year of son +Birth year of wife +Husband, wife, and one son traveling together +From Baden +Going to North America In addition to home village/town, I think that wife's maiden name was BRUDER. Don't worry now about her name not being Louisa. Most German children from this time were given two names. Creszentia could have been the second name and her family may have called her this in Germany. But, in Chicago, she may have soon reverted to her first name (Louisa?) because Creszentia was confusing and too hard for Americans to spell. She may have been christened Louisa Creszentia BRUDER or Creszentia Louisa BRUDER. My speculations based on naming/usage patterns, of course. A year later, the follow single woman, daughter of Joseph, emigrated to North America from the same village: Emigrant identification 263889 First name Franziska Last name Winter Emigration year 1858 Country of destination Nordamerika Last place of residence Rheinmünster Reference Josef (Tochter von) Marital status led. Sex w Age at emigration 25 Continent Nordamerika County nicht zuweisbar Archive Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe District Schwarzach Does she show up in the 1860 Census with Robert's family? If so, she most likely was Robert's sister or cousin. Website for the municipality of Rheinmuenster is http://www.rheinmuenster.de/ There are no filmed records for Rheinmuenster which is a little surprising because Muenster refers to a large church building. However, looking on the map, Rheinmuenster is almost on top of Schwarzach so I would start by looking at its films. It may well be that Schwarzach residents were the very people the Rheinmuenster church was built to serve. The film's contents look like they cover all the villages around Rheinmuenster viz. "The Parish register of Schwarzach and vicinity, Hildmannsfeld, Ulm, Greffern, Moos, Leiberstung, Unzhurst, Stollhofen and Vimbuch" So, I would start with: Title Kirchenbuch, 1613-1889 Authors Katholische Kirche Schwarzach (A. Bühl) (Main Author) Taufen, Heiraten, Tote 1830-1889 FHL INTL Film 999043 Look for the birth of Robert junior in 1856 and see the names of his parents. Mother's name might be listed as Creszentia, Louisa, Creszentia Louisa, or Louisa Creszentia. Then look for marriage of the couple and then birth of Creszentia BRUDER. You'll have to order a different film for Robert senior's birth/christenning. Robert senior will also have two given names so his name on the birth and marriage entries might be Josef Robert WINTER or Robert Josef WINTER or one or the other first given names alone. (Note Josef is only an example). So, maybe this is your lucky day. Good luck for the future too, Paul +++++++++++++++++++ From: L C <aeesni@yahoo.com> Reply-To: aeesni@yahoo.com, baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com To: BADEN-WURTTEMBERG@rootsweb.com Subject: [BW] Robert WINTER immigrated from Baden, Germany Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 09:57:50 -0700 (PDT) I would like to find out more about my 3rd great grandfather, Robert WINTER b. 1826 in Germany.   The census records all state he immigrated from Baden, Germany.  He was married to a Louisa b. Bet. 1836 - 1837 (maiden name unknown) before 1857 as the first child was born by then.  Their first child, also named Robert was b. 1857.  All 3 immigrated to America and show up in Cook Co. Illinois for the 1860, 1870 and 1880 census. If anyone knows of what records I should search or knows about the family, please let me know what to do.  I am quite good at researching in America, but overseas I dont know what I'm doing.  Thanks for any help, LC ------------------------------- 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