How I can sympathize! I have all other lines back to the 1600s (at a minimum some back to the 1400s and 1300s) except my Germans. They like to hide! Some things I have learned...many of the spellings we are used to were fluid and changed even within the same document. Spelling did not get standardized until the middle of the 1900s. So the 1800s is a real challenge. Germans loved multiple names. There was the official name, the name the family called the person, and then there may be several nick names used for specific things. I have several examples of this in my family and others. They would name several children with the same first name like Johann and give each boy a different middle name.. So researching them is a real experience! The family stories used the middle names or the nick names, records could use any combination. My one Great Grandfather was Gottfried Gottlieb Christian Gephardt. He fought in the civil war. He is listed in one record as Gottfries, one as Gottfried, in one as Gebhardt and on the same record later on as Gebhart (no d). When his daughter was killed in a tragic house fire he showed up in the newspaper as Henry...where in the world did that name come from?! So, you see, there is no easy answer and sometimes you have to just research everyone with the same last name and then try to fit the pieces together. Good luck! I have had the best luck with Church records. That might be a good place to start. Laura ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jane Day" <fordellcastle@yahoo.com> To: <GERMANS-STLOUIS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 2:54 PM Subject: [Germans-STL] Buehne family/no consens? > I have just subscribed to this newsletter a couple > weeks ago, and hope someone can help me. My ancestors > from Germany were named Buehne. I am aware they didn't > have to get naturalized back then-1850s through 1880s, > but as I have gone through ISTG and found nothing I > believe they may have come without 'consens'. I have > searched for the Buehne name with merely a 'u' with > the umlaut rather than the 'ue' and come up empty. We > have relatives in Illinois, but no one can determine > exactly where in Germany they came from. Any advice or > links on how to find this? Also, when people came > without'consens', what were the circumstances of their > voyages and how could they have slipped through the > ports? Were aliases used then? I know buehne means > stage, so perhaps it was a false name? I have been > successful with UK genealogy back to the 1500s. > Germany is giving me fits, and I have promised Mom and > my aunt to find the answers. Thank you for any help. > Jane Henderson > > > ==== GERMANS-STLOUIS Mailing List ==== > RootsWeb's mailing lists are filtered and attachments are removed. A virus that is distributed as an attachment will not reach you through a RootsWeb mailing list. For further information about Viruses, Trojans, Worms etc., go please to: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/virus.html. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >