Hello there in America !

I like to add some connection between Boehle on both sides of the ocean. My ancestors lived in the city of Essen in the Ruhr area of germany. Essen is situated about 100 miles northeast of the city of cologne and the former capital of germany, bonn. South of Essen lies the city of Wuppertal, having streets like "Boehlerweg" (=Boehler-Path), "In the boehle", "Boehlerbach" (=Boehler-Brook) and "Boehlerhof" (=Farm of Boehler). And... Wuppertal is really near to the city of Schwelm, where some of your ancestors came from.

So much about the geographical situation. As i said, my parents and grandparents came from Essen. Rumours tell, that their ancestors came from the Wuppertal Area. And other rumours tell, that one of them left his family in the beginning of the 20th century to make his luck in America.

In germany it's not so easy to track roots, because the use of "Holy Family Bibles" with birth- and dying-dates over centuries isn't usual. Additionally, the Boehles in Essen are supposed to have been poor people. So the only simple source for backtracking are the old address books of the cities. Maybe you know, that we have a much more strict system of people registration in Germany since the prussian times. If you change your address, if you marry, if you become parents, you have to notify authorities. Therefore it's simple to track back until the beginning of the 20th century. But if you want to go before that time, you'll have to study church archives by hand.

But maybe we can connect some threads between Amarica and Germany....

Bye, Frank