Forwarded from the message board. If you can help, please respond back on the board through the link below: This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Rila Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/TdB.2ACI/1778 Message Board Post: My grandfather was born in Germany in 1876. According to him he was orphaned and attended the McIlhaine Institute in New Lebanon. He then went to work on a farm at Carlton Pa, on the French Creek just adjacent to Venango County. He spent his adult life mostly in Franklin, leaving there in 1953 for Erie when we moved. I believe he was naturalized sometime before 1900. Where are records kept for that period? County courthouses, etc.