The family story is that the EBERTs were from Alsace-Lorraine. A recently obtained death certificate from 1929 shows that the claim has been around at least since then. Another death certificate, which just arrived, lists Austria! The problem has been that the family's passenger list, census and citizenship records list Bavaria (Bayern) as their homeland. Should I be looking at Rhein-Pfalz, closer to Alsace but once under Bavarian rule? I don't know. The real problem is that I cannot find anything in St. Louis that mentions a town name. I'd like to check on some of the records for the branch of the family that moved away in the 1850s, but preliminary inquiries have me thinking that it will turn out to be nothing more than a nice ride in the country.
The only recent find (thanks, Gloria!) which may eventually help with research of German records is the 1852 Catholic burial record of Margaretha EBERT. This woman's age (59) generally matches with the age of the "Margreta" who immigrated with the family and the "Margaret" that lived with them in 1850. The burial record is simple in nature, but lists her parents: Joannis (Johann) and Catharinae (Catharina) EBERT. This implies that the woman never married, and fits into my theory from a few years back that the woman who immigrated and lived with the EBERTs was likely Konrad and Ferdinand's older sister, not their mother. But before getting carried away, the burial record doesn't list anything to connect Margaretha to our family. If we knew that Johann and Catharina EBERT were also the parents of Konrad and Ferdinand it would be a different story. It is worth noting, though, that Margaretha's burial was recorded at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, which was the family's church for their early years in St. Louis.
[genealogy, Ebert]
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