Hello List, Below is a short history of my G. G. Grandfather Adam Haas. This is meant for any new comers to the list that may be connected. My G. G. Grandfather Adam Haas b. May 15, 1834, in Rehborn, Baden, Bavaria. He came to the USA on April 1853, arriving with a brother Charles Haas. Charles and his father smuggled Adam on board the ship. The father didn't want Adam to have to go into the Wicked Kaisers (Ludwig) Army. You needed a passport of source to leave the country, but if you had not been in the army you were denied a passport to leave the country. So they smuggled Adam aboard the ship and hid him till he got to USA. Adam was a very educated man. He could speak 4 different languages none being English. He self taught himself English and went to work for the Railroad as a translator for the men who could not speak English. He traveled all over with this railroad job. He lost contact with Charles. Charles was said to be either a Stonemason or Taylor in New York. Adam quit the railroad and took a ship and was on his way to Calf. when they ran into a Hurricane near Savanna, GA. Adam left the Ship and how he ended up in Spartanburg, SC we have no idea. But he met and married a Camzada Blackwood in 1858 in Spartanburg. SC. On the 1860 census Adam was living near a Frederick Haas who was a Stonemason. By 1870 Adam had moved his family by wagon train to St. Louis, MO. The 1870 census of Spartanburg showed no Haas family. Their were Haas in St. Louis. We feel that Frederick had moved to MO after the Civil war or just before it. Adam was in the Civil War from SC. Family rumor has it that there were more brothers then just Charles. That Frederick, Charles, John, Jacob, Adam and Peter all came to the USA, but at different times. There were sisters that stayed in Germany. And most assume that Adam was the youngest of the boys. By late 1870 or early 1871 Adam moved his family back to Spartanburg, SC. As far as anyone knows he never met up with any of his brothers again. He always had to have the New York Newspapers. Some feel because he loved to read, but I feel he was maybe always looking for ads from his family or brothers in the classifieds. If any of this sounds like it could be your family even if you may have heard a family rumor of such, please let me know. Adam named his children (in order of birth) Amelia Elizabeth, Mary, John P., Karl, Theresa, Elizabeth, William, Edward, Steve. Some Germans have naming patterns so maybe some of these names are in your families. Sincerely, Jean Jondreau Nashwauk, MN LJJJPWM@aol.com