Hello: I am reasearching my Gutloff lineage on St.Croix who were moravians in 1841. I was thinking about going to Philadelphia to search for records. would that me a smart move. Does anyone have any info on how solve this riddle in my reaserch thank you omar

Hi Omar, I think you have to decide the issue based on how many relations you are looking for. Did they stay in one place or are they spread out? How many churches' records will you have to look at? What's the time-frame. Decide also based on How far away from Bethlehem are you? What is going to be the cost of going there and staying there for a day, two days etc., or going back many times on one-day trips? If the records are few in number and in one or several Churches' or very many and spread out, then I think that you should consult with the archivists on the costs of doing the research for you, especially if you do not know, or cannot read the archaic German script. If you still want to go then the best thing to do before going is to get a sample page of an old Moravian Bible, or a Book written in the 1700's or 1800's and a dictionary from the same periods, and acquaint yourself with German terms that will be used in the records. Words like Baptism, Birth, Marriage, (Church) members, and place names in St. Croix, that might be Germanised. There is also sure to be a Book that deals with researching such records for the non-German reader that might have all this in one place. Sample pages of transcripts of such records and translations of the terms used etc. But do the math in terms of going, compared to the cost that you can negotiate with the archives and then decide. I hope this helps. Richard. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gotulff" <gotulff@aol.com> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 10:26 PM Subject: Moravian Records in West Indies continue > Hello: > > I am reasearching my Gutloff lineage on St.Croix who were moravians in 1841. > I was thinking about going to Philadelphia to search for records. would that me > a smart move. Does anyone have any info on how solve this riddle in my reaserch > thank you > > > omar > > > ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== > all messages posted to CARIBBEAN-L are archived at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Before posting a query, see if the question has already been asked > >