HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

F ench Research
I have noticed over the past several years messages
appearing on message boards to the effect:
“My great grandfather was _____(fill in the blank),
born in France about 1822. Can anyone help me find
my French roots” Although I find genealogists as a
group to be very helpful—and French genealogists in
particular to be wonderfully patient and friendly—
the secret to successful French genealogy follows
the realtor’s mantra: location, location, location. You
really need to know the city or village where your
ancestors resided.
If you believe that your ancestor came from
France, but you are unsure of the Region 5 (mainland
France has 22 regions—think of each as being
roughly equivalent to a separate state in the U.S.), and
96 departments—(think in terms of U.S. counties or
parishes).
the family in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, USA,
and stated his place of birth as being Germany. Germany!
What happened to France
OK, time out for a brief refresher on French and
Alsatian history. Metropolitan France is only slightly
smaller than the State of Texas. Tucked away in the
northeastern corner is the Alsace Region. It borders
present-day Germany and Switzerland, and runs
through the fertile Rhine River valley east of the
Vosges Mountains. Alsace is composed of two departments:
Bas-Rhin (literally Low Rhine) and Haut-Rhin
(literally high Rhine). Since the Rhine River flows
from south to north, Bas-Rhin appears on the map
above Haut-Rhin—logical, but confusing to some.
Haut-Rhin is bordered by Germany to the east and
Switzerland to the south. The connection with the
Swiss was particularly strong with the former free
city of Mulhouse not being absorbed until 1798. As
a result, those of you with Swiss ancestors may also
find you have an Alsatian connection.
Ever since the 1st Century BC, when Julius Caesar
conquered the area, Alsace has been trampled
by various military forces through the centuries.
From the Holy Roman Empire, through the Thirty
Years War (1618-1648), the French Revolution (1789) 5 ,
the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and the two
Geographical Comparisons: French to U.S.
I suggest a visit to the following French website:
www.geopatronyme.com. Please don’t be intimidated
by the French language. In the center of the screen
is a box entitled “votre nom” (your name). Insert the
family surname that you are searching and click the
“valider” (validate) button. A screen appears that
shows the distribution of your surname by birth date
for a given time frame. To the upper left of the map
is a phrase “choissez la periode” (choose the time
frame) for anyone of four time periods ranging from
1891 to 1990. The map will then show the distribution
of that surname by department—the next smaller
jurisdictional area after the region. In the case of the
Lazarus surname, the chart for the time period 1891-
1915 shows 84 births in the Bas-Rhin Department,
followed by 21 in Haut-Rhin. These two departments
make up the Alsace Region. For illustrative purposes
I will focus on Bas-Rhin. It has only 527 cities and
villages (communes) to search through!
In my case, I was quite fortunate that good old
Mary Leiper had mentioned a village by name
“Runtzenheim,” and that my great grandfather emigrated
to the U.S. in April 1881. I found Andre in
the 1892 New York State Census and the 1900 and
1910 U.S. Federal Censuses. The combined census
data confirmed the 1881 immigration date, showed
Map of Alsace
Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009 Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r © 37