Hello Joe, your story sounds too good, but there is not much swimming from Germany to France in the border river "Lauter" which ends near Lauterburg in the Rhine: The Lauter is only up to 8 meters broad and in summertime you can walk across its bed. Best regards Ernst Dierich. ----- Original Message ----- From: Joe Metz <joemetz@fuse.net> To: <PFALZ-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 12:50 PM Subject: Re: [PFALZ] River between Germany and France > In an e-mail I got from my second cousin last night, she shared a little > tidbit with me about our family history which I hadn't heard before. We've > known that the family left Germany in 1865 or 1866 because they were worried > that the oldest sons would be conscripted into the army. My cousin shared > with me that she had always heard from her grandmother (who would have been > the grandaughter of one of the immigrants) that the family fled Germany, > swimming across a river into France. As I've said before, we came from > Insheim down near Landau, not far from the French border. > > Any ideas what river that might have been? > > Joe Metz >