Hello Carol,

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. My Piers family in Bremerhaven/Cuxhaven may not actually exist under the Piers name. That is a big part of my problem. My wife's grandfather was John Pierce from the B'haven/C'haven area. He was born in 1880 or so and went to sea as a cabin boy to escape the Prussian military. He eventually became part of the crew of the Grosse Kurfurst,a North German Lloyds passenger ship. He jumped ship in Hoboken,NJ in 1903. We are not sure exactly what his name really was.

Here is where our problem starts.When he applied for US
citizenship, he gave his name to the person taking the information. That person said "Pierce" and he said yes. We never really knew for certain. He always went as John Pierce. We know that Pierce is not a German name so we have been searching all Pierce-sounding German name web sites for years.

Do you have any Ideas?

Howard Cole