This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Batcheler Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Qk.2ADI/2058 Message Board Post: Hello, This is my first time here, and it is very late (just past two a.m.) as I have been on a chase tonight. My birth father's name is Russell Batcheler. I haven't seen him since 1968 as he and my mother divorced and I was subsequently adopted by my step-father. My paternal grandmother, Blanche Batcheler, was very loving and, although she never saw me again, remembered me in her will when she died in the mid-90's! The reason I'm on a chase is that I know absolutely nothing about my paternal grandfather, and both my full-sister and I share strong physical traits which come from our father (and grandfather it is assumed) i.e. darker complexion and general Mediterranean or Romany (Gypsy) features. So naturally, I have a number of questions as to nation of origin and ancestry. What makes this search difficult is that my paternal grandfather was not even present at my mother & father's wedding in California. My paternal grandmother was present, and it from all appearances it looks as if she raised my father as a single mother, and, perhaps, never married the man who fathered her child. What I have always known is that my grandmother was "a farm girl in Iowa" as she always used to tell us. After much guesswork, it appears that the highest concentration of Batcheler's I have found in Iowa have been in Clinton County. One hunch I have is that after the birth of my father my grandmother (being an unwed single mother in the mid 30's) moved with him to California, "the land of opportunity"! Thus, although I am a great researcher (and love it, too!!) I am in need of assistance from others who are in the area and may have access to more information than I can gather remotely. Batcheler (and it is this spelling exactly) hasn't appeared on any of the surname lists I've seen from Clinton county, so that adds to the mystique of this search! :) Thank you for any and all suggestions, recommendations or other assistance!! Melissa Moon [email protected]