Geography of Alsace

The province of Alsace sits in the northeast corner of France.  It is bordered on the north and east by Germany and on the southeast by Switzerland.  The flat, fertile plain of Alsace is fenced on the east by the Swiss Alps and on the west by the Vosge mountain range.  The Rhine river keeps the area well watered, and the result is well-protected and productive farmland.  Its position on the edge of France and Germany has made it the envy of both nations. 

 This shaded area is the province of Alsace.  The dark green areas show the mountainous and forested areas of the region.

The long, thin province is divided into two departments: Haut-Rhin in the south and Bas-Rhin in the north.  Don't let the names confuse you.  Haut-Rhin translates to "upper Rhine" and Bas-Rhin is "lower Rhine", but like the upper and lower Nile regions of Egypt, these refer to elevation, rather than a north-south orientation.  Bearing this in mind, you can see that Bas-Rhin, which is bordered by Germany on two sides, will have a greater concentration of persons with German ancestry.  Haut-Rhin touches Germany and Switzerland, so is more likely to have Swiss connections than Bas-Rhin.

Historically the predominant occupation in the area was agriculture, especially wine- and beer-making.  The Germanic influence in the area mean that it produces the most beer of any French province.  The two mountain ranges flanking the area give it a fairly sunny and dry climate which is ideal for growing.  This, coupled with the French tradition of wine making and drinking, make the area an important producer of white wines.  There has also been a history of mining, mainly near the mountains. 

By necessity most travel routes run north-south in this area, however by the mid-1800s rail lines stretching east and west wound through the mountains to take emigrants west from Strasbourg to Le Havre.  Before their completion, the best option was to follow the river north to Bremen and Hamburg.  These three ports were the most popular for emigrants heading to the new world. 

French Republican Calendar

Alsace adopted the French Republican calendar during its use from late 1793 through 1805, after which they reverted to using the Gregorian calendar - the one you are familiar with and use today.  In an effort to do away with the past and usher in the modern era, French revolutionaries changed many standard systems, including measurement, their monetary system, and the calendar.  They sought to simultaneously decimalize the calendar and diminish the references to monarchy and religion which had become inseparable from the old calendar.  Instead of Saint's days, the days were connected to farm life and named for plants, animals, and tools.  Instead of months named for monarchs, such as August and July, or for gods, like January and March, the months were named for weather conditions and harvests.  They restructured the year to be composed of twelve months beginning at the autumn equinox.  Each month was made up of three ten-day weeks called "decades".  At the end of the year five complementary days were added to keep the calendar stable with the solar year.  On leap years a sixth was added, and called "Revolution Day". 

The calendar began on September 22, 23, or 24, depending on when the equinox was reached in a particular year, and the months are as follows:  Vendémiaire (grape harvest), Brumaire (fog), Frimaire (frost), Nivôse (snowy), Pluviôse (rainy), Ventôse (windy), Germinal (germination), Floréal (flower), Prairial (pasture), Messidor (harvest), Thermidor (summer heat), and Fructidor (fruit).  They also removed reference to the birth of Christ and restarted their calendar at the year one.  All years were represented by capital Roman numerals.  The days of the week were assigned numbers, like primidi, duodi, tridi etc. all the way to décadi.  Thus a date for a birth might look like this: quintidi Thermidor VII, or 16 Ventôse IX.

The note on the left side of the above birth record reads "Joseph Schweitzer / 17th frimarius X / Jahr Republik," or Joseph Schweitzer, the 17th of Frimaire in the tenth year of the Republic.

If you are researching a family whose dates run through 1793-1805, you will find that the civil records like this one will all bear dates from the French Republican calendar. To avoid confusion, most online family tree makers will only accept dates in the Gregorian format, so you will need to use a conversion tool or table to discover the corresponding day.  I like the converter at Napoleon.org. The format is straightforward and easy to use, and can be found at http://www.napoleon.org:81/en/essential_napoleon/calendar/index.asp

Intro to genealogical research in Alsace

Family history research is fascinating, like putting together the pieces to a puzzle about yourself.  It can be quite challenging even when working in your own language, but switching into a foreign language to trace migrating ancestors is even more difficult.  This is compounded when the region switches between two or more unfamiliar languages.  This is the case in the Alsace region of France.  The area sits on the border of France and Germany and has changed hands between the two many times.  Whoever was the controlling power at the time changed the official language, and which determined what language official records were kept in.  Because of this, you could find yourself tracing a German family (as I was) whose civil records are entirely in French for several generations.  To help you navigate the language crossover, I've created a table with a short list of important genealogical words in English, French and German.

This will help you get started, and can act as a quick reference sheet.  More complete lists can be found at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/German_Word_List and https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/France_Language_and_Languages . These can be used for more complicated or problematic records, such as ones that are extremely wordy or contain word or spelling variations.