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Subject: [PACAMBRI] Maps of Germany
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:16:29 -0500
References: <ccd.4f785f8.32a85d76@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <ccd.4f785f8.32a85d76@aol.com>

Thanks, I will look at the maps you listed.
That area of "Rh Bav" as my ancestors wrote it on the Census, is a really difficult area to research, with parts of it--or the entire area-- going back and forth between Alsace, Metropolitan France, and Germany over the years. Every European war has been fought either on that land or the armies crossed and recrossed it.
Fortunately for me, Liemen is a rather secluded village up in the forested mountains, with only a single road into town [today], so not much happened there to destroy the records. Even during the French Occupation, when the churches were mostly closed in France and French occupied territories, the records are constant--no gaps. The only change is the priest dating the entries with the with the French Revolutionary Calendar when it was in effect.
There were riots connected with religious oppression in some towns and cities in this area. All my German relatives who emigrated from that area were very religious [Catholic] and very stubborn. I would not have liked to be the civil or even Army administrator then in the Rhineland, and indeed, none of the administrators lasted very long. For one thing, few if any administrators spoke German, and the Germans either didn't [or pretended not to] speak French. The Germans smuggled food and supplies across the Rhine [their normal trade routes] and hid and secretly supported the bandits as long as they only attacked the French.
I found out there were French Civil Documents for those 20 years, too, and a friend looked them up. I guess some of the vital statistics in the Civil Records [that are not in the Catholic Records] show the local collaborators. According to the history books, the French had to force citizens to take public offices. Most of the political liberals who at first welcomed the French Republicans, became so disgusted with the deeds of the French Army that they became German patriots. The main punishment was to quarter soldiers in private homes--this would ruin a family.
From the histories I have read, most of the West Bank communities [outside the main cities where the French had garrisons] just practiced passive resistance to the French for 20 years. They obeyed as long as there were French toops nearby.
From the church records I could not see many local soldiers, and I found out later that the French, in an effort to gain favor with the German villagers, did not draft them till Napoleon's last campaign in 1814. Also, the occupation administration probably thought the peasants were better off growing food and paying tax money and levies to the French Republic than serving in the Army, as long as there were enough French-speaking French conscripts.
Marilyn


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Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 12:52 PM
Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] German Lutheran....Correction


marilyn,
i hope this helps. it seems to be the cmplete history of germany. i quickly perused it, and there seems to maps of all eras.
bill bowman

Germany: Map, History and Much More from Answers.com
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