Good morning. Can you help? We can't find JOACHIM BORCHWARDT's birth place in Germany or Prussia. He is buried in St. Johns United Church of Christ, Granite City, Madison County. His grave stone says died Dec 31, 1885, born July 21, 1842. We believe from other information that the birth date MAY be calculated from age at death, namely 43 years, 5 months, 10 days. He applied for naturalization in 1873 and was naturalized in 1876. He signed that he gave up any allegiance to the "Emperor of Germany." The application says that he had been in Madison county for about three years, thus would have come about 1870. The 1880 census lists him as being from "Prussia." Some references are for Joseph instead of Joachim. There are christenings in the St. Johns United Church of Christ for children in 1872 and 1875 which lists the mother (wife of Joachim) as Christina Schmidt. Christina died sometime between 1880 - 1884, Joachim (sometimes Joseph) married (in St. Louis) again 30 June 1884 to Anna Elizabeth Biesterfeldt Curiously there is another Christina Borchwardt buried in the St. Johns graveyard. She was born and died (as an infant) in 1867. She is in a different plot than Joachim. OK? With that as background does anyone in the Madison Co. community have any clues to immigration of Joachim, or other similar or related families, or church groups, or, or, or . . .? Thanx for any help ================================ Don Dickason Searching for family names: Dickason, Hamilton, Cadwal(l)ader, Wisely, Steinberg, Borchward(t), Biesterfeld(t), Blair