My husband's father's BUCHMANN line proceeds backwards from Pittsburgh, PA to the immigration from the little town of Oberbronn in Elsas-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)--which was then part of what became Germany--of Philip MENGES b. 8 Feb 1829 in Oberbronn and his wife, Regina BUCHMANN. She was b. there too, on 28 Feb 1830. As yet, we don't know whether they married there before immigrating or not. We do know that Philip somehow got hold of a musket from the Civil War (which is now in the possession of one of Philip's descendants, a first cousin to my husband) but so far we aren't sure whether he fought in it as we believed he went from Germany to live in Pittsburgh, PA. There's only the possibility at this point that he might have been in New York for a time because a Philip MENGES served for the Union from there. It makes sense to me that this could be the same man but that's as far as our hunches go at this point. I'm not actively researching MENGES nor BUCHMANN since I have my hands *quite* full with the abundance of work to do regarding my own lines; however, they seem to cross even here in the U.S., and my husband is now unable to spend much time at the research, himself. I think it's great that there's a BUCHMANN mailing list to which we can all submit our queries, etc., and I'm hoping that those who *will* share information will do so. Do our Philip and Regina look familiar to anyone else here on this list? If so, what can anyone tell us about their siblings or parents, whom we don't know? We have six children for them, all born in Pittsburgh before, during and after the Civil War (which also seems to put a damper on the idea that Philip was a soldier during this period but it's still possible). --Carol (Huffington) Menges