David, first I will mention that my background includes six years studying history at the University of Munich in Germany, in case you may be wondering where my historical knowledge comes from.

I'll start with a language matter: "Pfalz" is simply German for "Palatinate", just like "Deutschland" is German for "Germany". So you're actually referring to the PALATINATE. Your family were thus of course PALATINES.

You failed to include a piece of information always of the most vital importance in German genealogy: What was the family's religious denomination? Although civil records are available for Germany west of the Rhine going back to 1798 (civil registration was not introduced in Germany east of the Rhine until the mid-1870s), church records are THE primary source of family information in German genealogy, church records often being more informative than the older civil records anyway. So if you give me the family's religious denomination, I could guide you the the correct parishes in which to find church records. The Mormons have done extensive filming of church records, both Protestant and Catholic, in the Palatinate.

Now I'll give you a bit of historical background. Perhaps you already know some of these things, but perhaps not:

To fully understand all of what I'll be saying here, you have to be aware that just like the U.S., Germany, too, has always been made up of STATES.

In 1797, Germany west of the Rhine was annexed to France and remained part of France throughout the Napoleonic era. The French administration introduced the civil registration of births, deaths, and marriages in this part of Germany, which is why civil records go back to 1798 in Germany west of the Rhine. This of course means that if Elisabetha was born in 1808 or 1809, she was born in FRANCE.

The introduction of the civil registration of births, deaths, and marriages by the French in Germany west of the Rhine in 1798 saw the establishment of what is known as the Registry Office (in German: Standesamt).

One of Germany's pre-Napoleonic states was the Electoral Palatinate (in German: Kurpfalz). Its capital until 1720 was Heidelberg. Then in 1720, the capital was moved to Mannheim. That portion of the Palatinate west of the Rhine was annexed to France in 1797. A few years later, that portion of the Palatinate east of the Rhine, which included cities such as Heidelberg and Mannheim, became part of the southerwestern German state of Baden (capital: Karlsruhe).

Following Napoleon's defeat, France of course lost Germany west of the Rhine. Although they do not share a border, the Palatinate (referring to the Palatinate west of the Rhine) was governed as part of the southern German state of BAVARIA (in German: Bayern; capital: MUNICH, in German: München) from 1816 until 1945. Its adminsitrative seat was the city of SPEYER. The Palatinate came under Bavarian rule following the Congress of Vienna because branches of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach had ruled in both anyway. I will add here that the Palatines were not exactly thrilled about coming under Bavarian rule, one of the primary reasons being political: The Palatines were politically very liberal, the Bavarians very conservative.

Following World War II and the break-up of the vast German state of Prussia by the Allies, the southern half of the Prussian Rhineland or Rhine Province (provincial capital: Koblenz), the Bavarian Palatinate (Pfalz), and the region of the pre-1945 German state of Hesse lying west of the Rhine and known as Rhenish Hesse (in German: Rheinhessen) combined to form today's new postwar western German state of RHINELAND-PALATINATE (in German: Rheinland-Pfalz), with the Rhenish Hessian city of Mainz as its capital. The Palatinate thus has no connection with Bavaria today. (And I will add here that the Palatines were for the most part just as well pleased to be "disconnected" from Bavaria.)

Anyway, David, that was just a bit of historical background. As I said, if you give me the family's religious denomination, I can guide you to the church records of the appropriate parish or parishes. (Not every town or village had a church of its own.) I do have just one question, out of curiosity: Which ancestor of yours was the actual immigrant to America, and when?

Robert T.