Dear Lori, the Swiss Family Surname Book (Familiennamenbuch) lists many Places of Origin (Heimatort) where your MICHEL ancestors held citizenship in Switzerland, many before 1799. Several towns are also in the Kanton Graubuenden/Grisons, allbeit not Chur itself, but probably closeby. Since there are so many and I have only one life (little of it left ;-), I'll be glad to scan the full list of Heimatort(e) of MICHEL directly to your personal address. Would you like that? That way you can start scouring local sources in the most obvious places for your ancestors. Browse in the following excellent webs to get a basic understanding. http://www.eye.ch/swissgen/CH-burger-e.html http://www.eye.ch/swissgen/ http://www.eye.ch/swissgen/news-m.htm#news Best wishes, Hannneli ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lori Laing" <Lori@bccollisions.com> To: <SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 10:09 AM Subject: Research > Hello to all, > > I am extremely new at this, have absolutely no idea what I am doing & have > very little to go on to start but here goes! > I'm trying to trace my grandfather's roots but have very little info at > this time. His surname was MICHEL, first name Ernest. I do know that he > was born Nov 3 1906? in the Chur area of Switzerland. He had a bother > named Albert(not sure on his Birthday). The boys were orphaned at a young > age. My great grandmother supposedly died when Poppa was about 4, so that > would be around 1910. Great Grandfather (first name Albert) would have > died a short while after that. All I know is than Albert Michel sr was a > train conductor with the Swiss railway & died in a train wreck. My father > thinks it was around 1912. Both boys emigrated to British Columbia, > Canada in their late teens or early 20's. At this point, this is all I > have to go on. Thanks for everyone's time! > > Lori Laing (nee Michel) > lori@bccollions.com > > ______________________________