We have always said we are German. Well, not so fast. Based on the research by Cousin Brian over in London and taking off on that in Ancestry, you could say we are more Alsatian than strictly German. Our relatives straddled the border of what is now France and Germany in an area you could call North Alsace. Other notable Alsatian cities on the now French side are Colmar and Strasbourg, about 40 minutes south of the area we are from. This area has gone back and forth between French and German rule for centuries. German speaking people were not united in a what is known as Germany until the 1800’s. By then, our ancestors had migrated to what is now Ukraine.
The attached maps show where we are from. You get a view of how it relates to Europe in general, more detail on the local area, and the map showing where we started, where we went and left from, and the place we hopped on the boat to North America. Keep these maps in mind as you go through the posts.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: it just amazes me how they got from those little villages, to Eastern Russia, back to Hamburg, then to North Dakota from Philadelphia, New York, and Nova Scotia!
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