Ancestors from Alsace France

by Deb
(Ontario)

I know my ancestors left Trimbach, France in 1840. Where would I search for genealogy records. The family name is Higenell.

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Looking for Alsace relatives in Trimbach France
by: Suzele

Hi Deb,

You can search the genealogy records in the town of Trimbach. Unless Trimbach is too small and then you might have to search in a larger town that might have the records for a number of really small towns.

That has happened to me.

The records are handwritten most likely in French and maybe German depending on which records you want and when they were written.

They aren't always easy to read, but you get used to it with practice. French records are easier to read than German ones.

Even if you are fluent in both languages.

Congratulations on having the name of your family's village! Hopefully the info is accurate and you'll find what you're looking for.

Sometimes I have found that the records were not there. This may mean that the village name wasn't right. It could be a similarly named village or a neighboring village.

If the records were destroyed, this information is usually mentioned. So when records are not present, it usually means some info is not correct (usually the name of the village, but it could also be first or last name spelling or even birth date).

Honestly, I can usually figure out misspellings and check a few different years if the birthday is not 100% certain.

This is not the biggest challenge for looking through French genealogy records.

It's the village name.

Really hope your family tree searches in Alsace are going well now!

Hope it helps,
Suzele

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