My wife's great grandparents, Franz Ludwig Lauenstein (b. June 29, 1812 in Celle, Hanover and later known in U.S. as Frederick Louis Lauenstein) and Caroline Marie Wille (b. July 12, 1829 in Celle, Hanover in the Gardeners Cottage-- her father, Herr Schultz, being the King's Royal Gardener-- of the King's Royal Lodge). Their first born, Marie Dorothea, was born in the King's Royal Lodge also. The family emigrated to San Francisco in the mid 1800s, he first in 1850 and she and their child, my wife's great aunt, Marie Dorothea-- known as "Aunt Dora"-, in 1854. There their eight other children were born at the old family home at 835 Post Street, the site at which the St. Francis Hotel is now situated. My wife's grandfather, Robert Augustus Lauenstein, was the youngest child. Frederick and his partner, August J. Saulmann, founded and operated San Francisco's famous old German restaurant, "Saulmann & Lauenstein" at 520 Post Street. Frederick died August 16, 1879. In 1887, Caroline moved across the San Francisco Bay to the island known then, as it is now the City of Alameda, where my wife and her three siblings were born. We have a post card which Aunt Dora wrote to one of her brothers in 1914 when she was visiting and stayed over night at the familiy's ancestral castle, Burg Lauenstein, the oldest castle in Germany, built by Konrad I in the Ninth Century near the town of Lauenstein and city of Bamberg in Hanover. My wife and I visited this beautiful, mountain-top castle a few years ago also. My genealogy manuscript for the family includes seven generations, the first being Frederick and the last, being our great grandchild, Lindsey Maye Hoffelt (b. July 2003). If you believe your family Lauenstein is related, I would be much interested in exchanging data and information. I hav a whole packet of old records of many lines of the Lauenstein families in Hanover over several centuries, sent to me by the archivist at Stadt Celle. It is entirelly in German so I have not been able to learn too much from it yet. But we might be able to identify your line in it.