I know, it was a joke. I have a BA in history and have been a genealogist for nearly 20 years. -----Original Message----- From: JYoung6180@aol.com <JYoung6180@aol.com> To: GEIGER-L@rootsweb.com <GEIGER-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, July 25, 1998 11:42 AM Subject: Re: [GEIGER-L] GEIGER, Catholic Priest in Penn. Can anyone identify him? In a message dated 98-07-25 11:22:12 EDT, jhs1964@gte.net writes: > My Geigers where protestants who fled for their lives!!! No priests here! John, you will find a vast array of religions among the Geigers--Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Knowing about their religious history can go a long way towards identifying where they may have originated. It can be safely stated that the early Colonial Geigers arriving in America before the Revolution were mostly Protestant with only two exceptions that I am aware of. My Geigers, Matthias and Anna Mary (Halter) Geiger, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1738 on the Snow Two Sisters were definitely Catholic at the time of their arrival in America and for a number of years prior to that while living in Lembach, Alsace. They faced persecution in New Jersey until the Revolution due to their Catholic faith. Also, according to Annette Burgert's book 18th Century Emigrants from the Northern Kraichgau to North America, Anna Maria Geiger who was from Ehrstädt, Germany was from a Catholic Geiger family. Anna Maria married Melchior Shöner/Shaner who was a Lutheran. They emigrated to America in 1742 on the Ship Francis and Elizabeth. Anna Maria came to America as a Lutheran after her marriage to Melchior Shöner and the couple settled in New Hanover Township, in what is now Montgomery County, PA. Later Geiger immigrants to America in the mid 1800s on up to current times are as likely to be Catholic, or even Jewish, as Protestant. Joan