Attention Descendants of Michael Messinger, who was born in 1719, and his family that arrived in Philadelphia in 1732, and died in Forks Township, Northampton County, PA in 1791 I am wondering if anyone has definitive records to show where the Messinger family emigrated from. I have often heard Basel, Switzerland tossed around as a possibility, but so far I haven?t been able to find anyone with records from Basel to support that. A little while ago I came across an interesting website. The people on the website had joined together to commission a researcher in Germany to find the origins of their family. I was wondering if there would be any interest in doing the same for our Michael Messinger. Although such research is very expensive (the one I saw was over $700), if we can get a lot of people to contribute we can drastically lower the price of the research. For example, if it would cost $700 and 7 people contributed, that would only be $100 each. If we got 14 people, it would only $50 each, and so on. Some researchers also have a policy that they only collect payment if the search is successful, thus meaning that there is no risk for the p! eople commissioning the research. This email is only meant to test the waters. If we pool our resources we stand a far greater chance of being able to find the exact place our family came from than if we all go it alone. Please let me know if you have any interest in undertaking such a project. If you do, and have any suggestions as to possible researchers or organizations to hire that would be much appreciated as well. Hope to hear from you all soon! ~Michael Messinger~ My Messinger line: Michael (b.1719), Jacob (1748), Isaac (1789), Elias (1822), William E. (1859), Claude C. (1883), John (1922, my grandfather)