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From: "Audrey Stanaland" <>
Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Ship France to USA in 1882---How to find more info . . .
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 13:04:53 -0500
References: <001c01c3dea5$e0946ea0$4a7d28ce@oemcomputer>


Faith,
Try this---First, do a thorough search of LDS records (at least those
available online) to see if you can discover more about your family. I have
found that if I check out people/dates that often seems unlikely
possibilities on LDS and be sure to check the "pedigrees" I find info that
on first glance didn't seem of interest. And take a chance---if you find a
SURNAME for your family line in a town where you think they lived,
call---stating up front that you are doing your family genealogy and wonder
if they are related--and how to contact you if you have to leave a voicemail
message . . .

It will be of great help if you can possibly find any USA death
information / obits / estate records on your family---see if more names can
be found, birthplaces noted, etc. If it's a small USA town where you
"think" a relative died, (or even if you just "think" they might have
lived/died there) write the newspaper / local library / ask "Please and
Thank you" for a search of records --or what you should do to obtain a
search of old newspaper archives for an obit--and offer to pay for any
expense involved---it is never very costly. Remember that the people who are
employees are usually not obligated to help or do research----but sometimes,
under the right circumstances, they just might be willing. And quite often,
people we rely on for help are volunteers--and overworked volunteers at
that!

This approach worked for me in Guttenberg, Iowa--where the newspaper very
kindly sent my request and query about accessing their archives over to the
library, where a librarian lucked out and found an illness article /
followed by a death article and sent it to me! (Prior to that I only had
family lore that my Johann Joseph WILLMS lived in Guttenberg, Iowa--let
alone that he had died there!) That obit article, along with the death
record that I then ordered, led me to a search of the town of Blankenheim
and the discovery of the Eifel region in Germany---in the Rhineland below
Cologne and bordered by the Netherlands and Belgium, etc.

Open Rootsweb. Under "Mailing Lists" click on Index, browse---which opens a
page that allows you to choose some International mailing lists . . . go
down to Germany or Switzerland--and follow the links / choices to lead you
to some mailing lists for any suspected towns / areas you think might be
relevant to where your ancestors originated.

Also, do a web search for Swiss Genealogy or Germany genealogy, etc.---and
you will find more genealogy sites. Might be in German language---but don't
let that stop you.

Then, use as many as possible of those mailing lists to post as organized a
query as you can, giving relevant information, names, dates, birthplaces,
surnames involved in your family, date they left and immigrated, towns or
countries you think they lived, etc. Be as brief, but as thorough and
organized as possible. UPPERCASE surnames, lower case given names. If
necessary, post your query in German as well as English---by using the
AltaVista site "Babelfish" for translation . . .

The more queries you write--on as many possibly relevant sites as you can
find--the better. By doing this, I received responses from people in
Colgone and Dusseldorf (had to use Babelfish to communicate with
them!) ----and a query of mine was sent to a possible RIQUIER / RIQUER
relative, that indeed turned out to be our family! I was really surprised to
very quickly receive an email from a Mr. Graf in Munstereifel, telling me
about my family and how he is related--along with bunches of records!!!

I am also lucky that I have a brother married to a Norwegian--and they
live in Norway--and they speak German. They were taking a late summer
vacation to Germany and included the town of Blankenheim, where they waltzed
into the church and came away with a copy of an original birth record, and
excited by their discovery, returned at the end of their vacation, went to
the "city hall" and came away with two more records---another birth record
and a marriage record. These records were very revealing as to the parents.
(NOTE: the employees were very helpful in translating, but with careful
scrutiny and studying the writing and Old German script, my German-speaking
sister-in-law made some corrections in the translation. So, there's the
rub---getting it correctly translated.

After that trip, I quickly posted online to the German sites the newest
information my brother and his wife had discovered---and it was that
information that led to discovering the new relatives . . .

We found relatives in Munstereifel on my g-g-g grandmother Gertrud RIQUIER
WILLMS line from the Eifel hills region of the Rhineland---and this new
relative has records going back many generations on the RIQUIER line. And a
neat story about how during the French occupation, a RIQUIER officer in the
French army moved himself (by priviledge) into the house of the Mayor of
Munstereifel and married his daughter----thus our German WILLMS line added a
French name--RIQUIER. My brother and his wife made another short trip to
Germany a few weeks after their first trip---and met a large, lovely family
who welcomed them with open arms.

Not everyone will be so lucky perhaps---but you never know, so take a
chance--and good luck!!!

PS My husband and I are going to Norway and traveling with my brother and
wife to Germany this summer to visit the Eifel region and meet our new
relatives!!

Audrey Williams Stanaland
Loudon, TN

----- Original Message -----
From: "Faith" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 11:04 AM
Subject: [G-P-L] Ship France to USA in 1882 from Port of Embarkation: Havre


> Can anyone tell me if they know of any great sites where I can research
the
> Ship called France? My family came over in 1882 from the Port of
> Embarkation: Havre
> It states last residence: Switzerland
> Census records state they were born in Germany. I am new to out of the
> country searching, just wondering if anyone had any similar situations
over
> there, so I can start searching.
> Thank you,
> Faith Blount
>
> Roots of my tree: Ackermann, Arthur, Baxter, Blount, Davisson, Deisch,
> Eich, Friend, Glassburn, Spinler, Stiltner, Tritt, Warner?, Woods.
> >

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