Frank Johnson wrote: > I have a g.g.grandmother named SALOME FLORI (1826-1900), from Hanover, Germany. She married FRANK BABST, b. abt. 1822 in Hanover and they (she, at least - I assume with him) emigrated to America in 1856 at age 44 (1900 Chicago census). According to an earlier census record, they were living in Chicago in 1860. There are some variations of Salome's birth date from other sources, ranging from 1822 to 1830; I also have a copy of a photograph of her. > > 1860 US Census, Chicago: Children in Babst hh are: Lena, b. abt. 1846 in Hanover, Ger.; Leon, b. abt. 1849 in Hanover; August, b. abt. 1852 in Hanover; Mary (my grandmother), b. abt. 1854 in Chicago, Eugene, b. abt. 1860 in Chicago, and, in a later record, John, b. 1865 in Illinois. > > Has anyone ever come across any FLORIs living in Hanover during the early to mid-19th Century? What about the name SALOME? (She was referred to as "Salley" in the 1860 census). This name struck me as rather unusual and I was hoping it might have been passed down in her family, perhaps giving us a clue. > Frank, Salome is a rare first name but I wouldn't call it unusual. I have an ancestor named Salome Stenberg (the last name later became more common as Steinberg) who born in about 1670, married in 1690 and died in 1716 in the parish of Oerel, located about 50 miles north of Bremen. The name was more common farther south in Germany (Hessen, the Pfalz and Baden). The name Bapst may have also been more commonly spelled as Papst (B's and P's sometimes were interchanged depending on how the person recording the name heard it). Fred Buck Cincinnati, Ohio