Birth Records for My Alsace Lorraine Relatives

by Shan Heath
(Ogden Utah USA )

Hello,

My grand father was born in Alsace Lorraine and immigrated to the United States about 1911. His name was Louis Unteriner on some documents other documents were Ludwig Untereiner. I am trying to find out who his parents are for genealogy reasons. While I know the history of this territory, finding records has proven to be somewhat difficult. Can anyone help or tell me who do I need to write to get a copy of his birth record please.

Thanks for your help,
Shan

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Finding Your Alsace Lorraine Ancestors Birth Records
by: Suzele

Hi Shan,

Perhaps there's some more information that you didn't include in your request above. Or maybe it's just info you don't have.

If you want the birth records for Ludwig Untereiner (and that is likely his name in Alsace Lorraine), you also need the name of the town or village of his birth.

Otherwise, you will have 1000s of village and town records to look through.

If he was born after 1871 (very likely), then it at least limits you to the northern part of Lorraine and all of Alsace.

At least that is my guess based on the political situation at the time.

Records are organized by place. Not name, not year or month of birth (or marriage or death).

They are sorted by year and month (and not by name at all).

Names are just to find the correct person.

As for his name change, it's likely that Ludwig's family decided to change his name and make it less Germanic (very common because of World War One and World War Two).

I've seen this happen in many cases where the family had very germanic first or last names (and Alsatians tend to have very Germanic last names even today).

Don't feel that you are an unusual case not having the village or town name.

I get requests every day from people in the exact same situation.

It can be frustrating.

And I hope that you will find some info that gets you to your family's village or town.

If you do get stuck and unable to find more info, I have a question for you.

What other things would you like to know about your relatives?

Are you interested to know more about their every day life, their customs, their beliefs (like the odd things they did to find their future husband or wife).

You know, the things that really mattered to them (and you wouldn't believe what they would do to try to guarantee getting pregnant or negotiating marriage).

I study the history of Alsace (and all that interesting other stuff related to their beliefs and traditions).

Hope your genealogy search is going well!
Suzele

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