Are Alsatians considered to be German or French?

+5 votes
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I have always known that, my MILLER line was likely German.  After 40 yrs, I have traced them to Alsace, that little bit of land that is sometimes a part of Germany, and sometimes it is a part of France.  I want to prove the man I think is the father of my immigrant ancestor.  Since he didn't come to this country, should I look in French or German records?  Or will Alsace be the way to go?  I haven't found many records on that area and need help deciding where to go.  Many thanks!  Dolores Miller Pringle
in Genealogy Help by Dolores Pringle G2G2 (2.9k points)

2 Answers

+3 votes
 
Best answer

Hi Dolores,

While many Alsatian records may be written in German, French, and/or Latin, I believe that you'll find most of them in the archives in France. You'll need some indication of where in Alsace that your ancestors were from (ideally, commune). If you have that and some possible dates/ranges for birth/baptism, marriage, and/or death/burial, there are images of many church and civil records available online, though most aren't name-searchable. I've found many records for my ancestors in the Bas-Rhin archives here. Some of the image sets may have name indices at the beginning or end of the image sets.

I've also had some success finding hints and/or source references to research for French/German individuals by searching family trees with a free membership at Geneanet.

It helps to have a basic knowledge of the French/German/Latin terms used in the records, and to make use of Google Translate.

Hope this helps!

by Rick Peterson G2G6 Pilot (187k points)
selected by Dolores Pringle
+3 votes
I have family from that area also. Most of the records I've found were local church records and German records. But I got lucky and found some on google. But you never know where you will find the information you need
by Richard Devlin G2G6 Pilot (503k points)
Alsace is in France.  I have ancestors from there as well.  My mother went to Strasbourg to do research but our ancestors were German-speaking and the records she found were all German church records.  I think Alsace has been under French control most of the time so most records are in France even though most of the people who lived there (at least before the 20th century)  were Germanic.
Thank you!

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