Marie, you wrote: >While looking at the FHC site for baptismal records online...I keep seeing >Gönnheim, Pfalz, Bayern....but not my Gönnheim, Rhine, Germany, are these two >different places? > >When I checked map for Gönnheim Rhine it was in the Palantine area...not in >the Bavarian area which I believe Bayern stands for. > >Would appreciate some clarification from those of you more knowledgeable with >Germany areas. The Palatinate (Pfalz) was given to Bavaria in 1815 after Napoleon was driven out. The tradition of government in the German Empire was that the head of state was either royalty or an elector. The elector might be lay or ecclesiastic but always owed allegiance to the Hapsburg Emperor in Austria. The Elector Palatinate had been a major force in earlier German history but, after 150 years of invasions and devastation the line was extinct and the power gone. Thus, the fate of the Palatinate was in the hands of Metternich, the Emperor's chancellor. Left alone, he would have made it a direct territory of the Hapsburg emperor but internal politics in Vienna argued for a compact Austria centered around the traditional territories of Austria and Hungary. Thus, he had to hand it off to someone and the semi-independent Bavarian monarchy was convenient. The Pfalz remained "Bavarian" until it became part of the new German Empire in 1871. The IGI classes the Pfalz as part of Bayern as it was 1815-1871. Perhaps, they also needed a place to put it. Rob Hausman ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Robert E. Hausman hausman@bu.edu www.familytreemaker.com/users/h/a/u/Robert-E-Hausman/index.html HAUSMANN, ROUSSELET, HEERE, LAUBER, LATUS