Art,

My 2ndGGF, Leon Meyer (b. 1836, Laubach? Lembach?), emigrated from Alsace to the U.S. 1855.  His father, Solomon M. Meyer (b. 1798), emigrated in 1859, if I have the correct records.  My grandmother noted that that Solomon was married to a Fredericka Moehler (b. 1803).  As I have not found an immigration record for her, I presume she died before Solomon left France.  I know nothing else about where Solomon and Leon are from or their families.

NOTE:  There is a Solomon Meyer from Alsace who married a Fredericka Moog and I believe this couple has had their records confused with my relatives by others.  Moog is listed as having a daughter Julia and a son Lewis.  Fredericka Moehler had at least six children--Moses, Samuel, Leon, Sophia, David, Simon.

I would welcome any records or hints you might find.  My than ks in advance for your generosity and willingness to help!

Barbara Stein
Seattle, WA

Dear Barbara,

I tried Geneanet without success
this is most probably Lembach in Alsace (67), France

You can find all the records (birth , marriage , death) via a nice interface : http://archives.bas-rhin.fr/registres-paroissiaux-et-documents-d-etat-civil/ETAT-CIVIL-C262#search-results
I am reading 1717 as early dates

As always, if you are not sure about the dates, start  with the Decennale tables

Hope you will find your names !

Best regards
David

david.choukroun@...
France

Dear Barbara,

I forget to write : in case this is Laubach, Just change the city in the interface
http://archives.bas-rhin.fr/registres-paroissiaux-et-documents-d-etat-civil/

Regards
David

david.choukroun@...
France

I, too, have MEYER ancestors from neat Lembach. I found another Meyer family from Laubach ,a connection that a descendant of that family and I found very exciting, but then I learned from genami.org that Laubach didn't allow Jews to live there. That fact explains why there is no listing of Jewish families in Laubach in Pierre Katz's book that names the Jews in Alsace by town, a book giving the names before and after the 1808 requirement that all subjects of Napoleon's Empire had to take a civil name. The same is true of the 1851 census of Jewish communities compiles by Katz. I found your ancestors listed in Lembach in the latter book. Salomon Meyer is listed as a widower. There is a notation that he was born in Bavaria. in Niederhochstadt. You can most likely find civil records of life events in the Departmental Archives for Alsace, in Strasbourg, France, available online. Once you've found them, I'd be happy to read them for you, up until 1871 when Alsace was lost to Germany and the records from then on till after WWI are in German.
Dottie Miller
dottiem@...

MEYER (Goersdorf), DREYFUS (Brumath and Duppigheim), BIGART (Gerstheim), GERNSBACHER (Buhl), GUGENHEIMER (Ihringen and Breisach), JACOBSON (Vilna), BOGASLAVSKY (Ukraine), SERIENSKY (Ukraine)

David,

Thank you so much!  The Bas-rhin link has been incredibly helpful, although it has raised a number of questions. 

I have many more volumes to review but I found a marriage record for a Solomon Meyer and a Frederique Moog in 1821 but no evidence of a Frederika Moehler.  I found birth records for several children of Solomon and Frederique Moog, including (I think) my GGF, Leon in 1836, and his brother Simon in 1847, as well as a brother and sister I did not know existed. I also found a death record for Frederique in 1848.  Since Solomon arrived in the U.S. only with children and no spouse, I had presumed his wife died previously.  I think there must be many children who died young between 1821 and 1832 so I will keep looking.  

Again, my thanks for your help!

Barbara Stein

Barbara,

There is no Fredericka Moehler. I believe it is a mistake for Frederique Moog.

You can find in Lembach records all the names you attribute to Fredericka Moehler:

Frederique Moog (known as Fannette), born 18 Jul 1803 as Frommet, daughter of Isaac Schmulen (took the name Moog in 1808) and Jeannette Dreyfuss. She married firstly Joseph Levi and was a widow in 1819; she married (1821 in Lembach) Salomon Meyer, born in Niederhochstadt. She had 13 children during 25 years, all born in Lembach:

Moïse Meyer, 11 Sep 1822

Nathan Meyer, 22 Jul 1824

Abraham Meyer, 1 Mar 1826

Jeannette Meyer, 5 Mar 1828

Louise Meyer, 25 Feb 1830

Samuel Meyer, 20 Oct 1831

Lazare Meyer, 11 Mar 1834

Lion Meyer, 5 Sep 1836

Judith Meyer, 20 Apr 1839

Sophie Meyer, 25 Jun 1841

Isaac Meyer, 30 Mar 1843

David Meyer, 21 Apr 1845

Simon Meyer, 19 Apr 1847
She died 18 Apr 1848

I hope this helps,

Max Polonovski
Cercle de généalogie juive (France)
spolon@...

Max,

Many thanks!  This is incredibly helpful and I will find all the records you list.  What intrigues me is that, given these data, Frederique would have been a widow at age 16yrs.  Do you know if marriages that young were common in the community?  She would have then married Solomon at age 18yrs.

I also noticed that in Lembach there was an Emanuel Meyer and a Michael Meyer having children in the same years as Solomon was having children.  Do you know if they were related?  I have been told that Solomon was from Bavaria.  I do not know when, how or why he settled in Lembach.

Best,
Barbara Stein