The Germanic French - Researching Alsatian and Lorrainian Families

This webinar explains how a significant population of German-speakers came to reside in France and explores the peculiarities of researching ancestors of Alsace, Lorraine, and Elsass-Lothringen. It discusses when, why and how people from these areas came to the United States from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. Research challenges include: records kept in French, German and Latin; shifting national borders; peculiar surnames; and Catholic, Protestant and Jewish residents. Indispensable Web sites are reviewed, as well as books and manuals, and the large body of microfilmed records available from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.