At 9:18 AM -0500 10/19/05, hhsh@earthlink.net wrote: >According to the introduction, page xxiii, the list in the book is really a >list of those citizens who took the Citizen's Oath of Allegiance to Napoleon's >new Helvetic Republic, and the day designated for oath-taking was 17 Aug 1798, >a Friday. Since it applied to men aged 20-70, there doesn't seem to have been >any premium for exact accuracy in the recording of ages, so I suppose they >should be taken with a grain of salt, as with all age reports in that era. Was anyone with the surname BOTTERON listed? The family's "home town" (what's the Swiss name for that?) is Nods, near the French border. That area has sometimes been in Switzerland, sometimes in France. I don't know which country it was in in 1798. Thank you! Carol Botteron <botteron@alum.mit.edu>