This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: WOLF, WOLFFE, WOLFF Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/4JXBAIB/1372 Message Board Post: My name is Dick Diamond. I used to live in Temecula, CA but live in Bay City, Oregon now. My stay in Temecula brings me to my query. I would like to know fees, etc. but here is the "problem." I have done extensive work on a certain LOUIS WOLF (variously LEWIS, maybe LUDWIG in Germany) (WOLF is spelled variously WOLFE or WOLFF.). Louis Wolf was one of the original founders of Temecula, California. He arrived there about 1858. He opened a store with either SAMUEL or CHARLES PRAGER of Los Angeles. It was the WOLF-PRAGER store. He claims to have been married to a RAMONA PLACE in Los Angeles in 1865 but in contacting the Los Angeles Clerk's office, they have said they have no records of such a marriage. WOLF and RAMONA PLACE are memorialized in HH Jackson's book Ramona, which is the state novel of California. I am trying to ascertain the following: Did Wolf marry Ramona Place in Los Angeles and if so when? He CLAIMS to be Jewish and she was Catholic. Were they married in a Temple or a Catholic Church or was it a civil ceremony? What records do you have. Wolf (who claims to be born in 1833) says he was from Alsace-Lorraine but my checking with people in France who research the Alsace-Lorraine area say there was never a Louis Wolf born in 1833 let alone emigrating to the U.S. However, a certain LOUIS WOLF was from Baden-Wurttemberg, was born in 1833 and did emigrate to the US by way of Liverpool, England (Rasmussen's ship books). His name was spelled LEWIS in England. A friend of mine in Germany says that his name might have been spelled LUDWIG. WOLF claims German ancestry but then he says he was from Alsace. I don't know if he was covering up something or just "was playing with people's heads." :) He associated with Jewish merchants in Los Angeles and San Diego but that is perhaps only a co-incidence. Why he went to Temecula in 1858 is unknown. Upon his arrival in San Francisco around 1852, he says he went to the gold fields. We lose complete touch with him from 1852 to 1858. Ramona Place is from Santa Barbara (this we know from birth records) and was raised, in part, by the fathers at the mission. As the saying goes in the "King and I," "'tis a puzzlement." What help might you offer including other sources, people, institutions, etc. I am in the beginning of writing several articles regarding said LOUIS WOLF. Although he is not kin, I feel I do know him to some extent. Thanks, Dick Diamond diamond@oregoncoast.com