Geneva, Switzerland, 23 march 2000. Dear Sam, The Beguelin family does indeed come from Tramelan, Canton of Bern. Its origins come from the word beguer which means to stutter in French. A person with the name BEGUELIN could conceivably have been a person who stuttered, or a little person who stuttered. It is difficult to say because, once again, the mixture of German and French languages come into play here as concerns Switzerland. BEGUE is an old word. Interestingly enough the name, BEGUELIN, seems to be found only in Switzerland. We have come across the name many times in this country and rarely in France. "Variations on the theme," SMILE, are found in France with the root name being BEGUE, or BEGE. ( pronounced respectively, from the English, as "beg" and "baege or "baeje," or, "beige" ) or even Beguier whose Latin comes from "Begueri". For your information, the variation on a theme, its root name is found in eastern France, with the article or without the article, "le" in front, i.e., so you have such forms as Lebejot, Lebegue and I believe many years ago I saw the name in Franche-Comte , (Departements du Doubs, Jura, Haute Saone and Territoire de Belfort, France) It could have been in annex areas of Franche-Comte as well such as Saone et Loire and Cote d'Or, France. Let us know if we can be of any help. We like to say something intelligent once in a while, other than comment on the long and short forms of the actual question of the United States Census! ! ! ! ! I had to include that for our fellow listers! GRIN. Sincerely Jacques CEG / CGR / EIG Cabinet d'Etudes Genealogiques Center for Genealogical Research Estudio de Investigaciones Genealogicos Geneve, Suisse E-mail: genrsch@gve.ch genrsch@correoweb.com -----Original Message----- From: S. Khalid-Sengstag [SMTP:sk_sengstag@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 4:47 PM To: SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SWITZ] Beglin Jacque, Have you considered BEGUELIN? The oldest branches of the family come from Courtelary and Tramelan, in the canton of Bern, in the old bishopric of Basel. Sam (Ottawa, Canada) ----- Original Message ----- From: Rmomba@aol.com To: SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 12:05 AM Subject: [SWITZ] Beglin I am looking for DeWalt Beglin's place of birth. It states on the 1870 census that he was born in Prussia. One the census for 1880 for his son he states France, but the children listed all say that their father was from Switzerland! I also thought that DeWalt was from Alsace-Lorraine since his daughter married a Peter Croft (Kroft) who was supposedly from Alsace-Lorraine. Could anyone tell me if someone lived in Switzerland near Alsace-Lorraine what port they might have left? Also Does the last name of Beglin seem to be a French/Swiss name? Thank you Jacque Wallingford Rmomba@aol.com ==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== Resource Site http://www.rootsweb.com/~chewgw