All From Just a Hint

by Bob Doerr

My e-mail address is bdoerr@rollanet.org
and I live in Missouri Ozarks.

In an immigration record, I found a hint that my immigrant great-grandfather was from Hessen.

I wrote to Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt for a check of the Auswanderer's Register. Properly, I told all that I knew, including the name of the lady whom he had married in St. Louis. Now it happens that her surname is rather common; I had no hope of finding her background.

But the reply was more about her than about him! They were from the same town, and, as I later learned, they immigrated together in a large group.

Submitted:  Sat Apr 17 16:45:51 1999

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