We are very new to this group, but would really appreciate help/suggestions/ideas. We are interested in the birthplace of our Great Grandfather, HERMAN JACOBS, his parents and siblings. There are two hints that he was from Koblenz, but we hired a Dr. Anna Seegebrecht to check, and she found nothing in Catholic Church records in Koblenz. HERMAN JACOBS Born abt December 4, 1822 (We thought) Koblenz, Germany We do not know his parents or siblings. d. December 22, 1900 in Kaukauna, WI His first wife was Elizabeth BACH (We do not know date or anything about her.) The family story is that they left Germany in early 1850's With 4 children. Three died at sea and Elizabeth died in childbirth with 5th child, so together they had 2 living children. We have not confirmed this story. Herman then married Eva ROMMELFANGER b. July 15, 1836 in Zerf, Germany daughter of Conrad & Anna Dickob ROMMELFANGER d. April 24, 1891 in Kaukauna, WI (This is our lineage and we do know quite a bit of Eva and Family) http://www.genealogienetz.de/vereine/wgff/trier/Familienbuecher was a tremendous resource. Thank you for taking the time to read all this, and if anyone can give us some direction, it would be extremely appreciated!! Jake and Connie Jacobs behappy@ez-net.com

Jake Jacobs wrote: > We are interested in the birthplace of our Great Grandfather, HERMAN > JACOBS, his parents and siblings. There are two hints that he was from > Koblenz, but we hired a Dr. Anna Seegebrecht to check, and she found nothing > in Catholic Church records in Koblenz. One of the first things to know is that when people said they were "from" a particular place, it didn't necessarily mean they were from that place *exactly*. Often they just named the nearest large city that someone would recognize. The Jacobs family could have come from any number of small towns or villages that were near Koblenz, so it's not surprising that they weren't found in the church records in Koblenz itself. > HERMAN JACOBS > Born abt December 4, 1822 > We do not know his parents or siblings. > d. December 22, 1900 in Kaukauna, WI > > His first wife was > Elizabeth BACH > > Thank you for taking the time to read all this, and if anyone can give us > some direction, it would be extremely appreciated!! There are a lot of resources on this continent that you could explore to find the origins of Herman and Elizabeth: - Look for their obituaries. They may list the town of origin. Don't overlook German language newspapers. - Look for Herman's Declaration of Intent. In some places, and at some times, these included town of origin. - Search the church records where they lived (Kaukauna?). On occasion, they list place of origin, but more importantly, use them to locate relatives and friends. These may be people with the same surname, but also baptismal and confirmation sponsors with other surnames. Serial migration was common-- people migrated to areas in the US where others from their German locale were already settled. With more names to search, you will have more opportunities to locate the town of origin. - Make connections with researchers of other German immigrants to Kaukauna to find out where their ancestors originated. - Find the passenger list for the ship they were on (They're indexed on Ancestry.com and castlegarden.org), then look to see if there were any other folks on the ship who ended up in Kaukauna. This again expands the list of compatriots you can search for origins. - And more. . . You're more likely to find their definite place of origin in American records than by prematurely crossing the ocean to search for potential places of origin. Good luck! Kathy

Kathy, Thank you so much for your prompt reply! I'm sorry. I should have made my query more informative. I wasn't sure how much to include. We have been researching the family for a number of years. I do have his death cert., obits from the two Kaukauna newspapers, contacted the Catholic Church there, but I get stuck in Germany. After Nov. 1st, we are going to the ARC in Milwaukee to see if Herman Jacobs possibly was naturalized. His children were born in Sheboygan, WI and they moved to Kaukauna, WI in 1880. Thanks again. We do appreciate your help. Jake and Connie Oconto Falls, WI -----Original Message----- From: trier-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:trier-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of kql Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 5:10 PM To: trier-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [TRIER-ROOTS] JACOBS Jake Jacobs wrote: > We are interested in the birthplace of our Great Grandfather, HERMAN > JACOBS, his parents and siblings. There are two hints that he was from > Koblenz, but we hired a Dr. Anna Seegebrecht to check, and she found nothing > in Catholic Church records in Koblenz. One of the first things to know is that when people said they were "from" a particular place, it didn't necessarily mean they were from that place *exactly*. Often they just named the nearest large city that someone would recognize. The Jacobs family could have come from any number of small towns or villages that were near Koblenz, so it's not surprising that they weren't found in the church records in Koblenz itself. > HERMAN JACOBS > Born abt December 4, 1822 > We do not know his parents or siblings. > d. December 22, 1900 in Kaukauna, WI > > His first wife was > Elizabeth BACH > > Thank you for taking the time to read all this, and if anyone can give us > some direction, it would be extremely appreciated!! There are a lot of resources on this continent that you could explore to find the origins of Herman and Elizabeth: - Look for their obituaries. They may list the town of origin. Don't overlook German language newspapers. - Look for Herman's Declaration of Intent. In some places, and at some times, these included town of origin. - Search the church records where they lived (Kaukauna?). On occasion, they list place of origin, but more importantly, use them to locate relatives and friends. These may be people with the same surname, but also baptismal and confirmation sponsors with other surnames. Serial migration was common-- people migrated to areas in the US where others from their German locale were already settled. With more names to search, you will have more opportunities to locate the town of origin. - Make connections with researchers of other German immigrants to Kaukauna to find out where their ancestors originated. - Find the passenger list for the ship they were on (They're indexed on Ancestry.com and castlegarden.org), then look to see if there were any other folks on the ship who ended up in Kaukauna. This again expands the list of compatriots you can search for origins. - And more. . . You're more likely to find their definite place of origin in American records than by prematurely crossing the ocean to search for potential places of origin. Good luck! Kathy ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRIER-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Greetings, > We are very new to this group, but would really appreciate > help/suggestions/ideas. > > We are interested in the birthplace of our Great Grandfather, HERMAN > JACOBS, his parents and siblings. There are two hints that he was from > Koblenz, but we hired a Dr. Anna Seegebrecht to check, and she found > nothing in Catholic Church records in Koblenz. Just to add my 2 cents worth, you may want to be alert to the possibility that the family name may be Jacoby. In the Germanic script, sometimes the "Y" got Americanized as an "S". Good luck on your search. Joe