REEB-ROOTS-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: [REEB-ROOTS-L] I am getting tired of New Orleans
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 20:46:35 EDT

This is not a very informative e-mail for anyone. But then the appropriate
sources who should be able to help with information on REEB families in New
Orleans have not been very helpful to this person.

Both Mike Reeb and Emma Messinger can attest that I have been very persistent
in my attempts to get more details on the various REEBS who came from Germany
and France and settled in New Orleans. In the beginning of my search in New
Orleans...all I could find was a few clues in the 1880 and 1900 census
soundexs that revealed that REEBS did live there in those years. When I
attempted to trace them further back to learn more about them, census indexes
were not any help. So I began to check numerous rolls of microfilm for the
already large city in 1850, 1860 and 1870. No REEBS showed up. Finally, I
found one of the REEB families but would you believe it the spelling showed
it as "RIBB." So can I be faulted for slow progress with those kind of
findings? Then I found some families spelled RAAB, RIEB, REAB...but guess
what they did not turn out to be REEBS. Is this confusing or what? Mike and
I talked and discussed these New Orleans REEBS at every phone call. Even
when Mike would call to tell me about some of his new findings which seemed
to reveal American REEBS in the European records...I would pester him about
the New Orleans REEBS...Finally he checked the New Orleans Death Records and
we learned a little more about the the REEBS there. Not satisfied yet, I
then contracted a professional genealogist in Baton Rouge to get more of the
death records and some of the birth records so I could study for every little
detail. As Mike knows, we studied the maps of New Orleans to try to
determine exactly which wards in the city the New Orleans REEBS lived
in...just in hopes of making some more census study easier... Even that did
not help. So being unsure, I bought a modern map of New Orleans and found a
site on line where they tell you which streets separated the various wards of
the city. Did that help? Not Much! But, again still determined I began to
check again page by page, reel by reel of micrrfilm of the 1850 census of New
Orleans. Finally I found one of the older Michael REEB families there but
spelled RAAP. Even the census index makers had missed him.

I called one of the churches in New Orleans and they referred me to a
Lutheran Church Archivist. I contacted him and was given the addresses and
telephone numbers of three Lutheran Churches in New Orleans where the REEBS
might have attended between 1850 and 1900. I wrote to two of them and called
them. Not receiving a timely answer to my queries, I then called them again
in a couple of months. Each time they gave me excuses. The people who were
authorized access to the records were not available due to one reason or
other. Finally after a couple more months I tried again. This time I was
told that one of the searchers would call me and the other church said the
researcher was in hospital for eye surgery. When the one searcher called me,
she was not very optimistic and told me that she could not read German very
well and the records were in German. But she would try and let me know. A
couple of more months passed, and still no answer. Then one day, a call from
New Orleans and the church secretary told me that they had indeed found the
name of REEB in the records. She would get them to me right away. Today the
results came. Am I pleased? NO! She now says she could not find the REEB
name only REAB name. She found only two baptisms and they were for children
where the mother was a REAB. They were not REEB at all. I have already
learned about the family these people came from...but we have already
determined for certain they were not REEB at all. So our Church Record
search lasted over 6 months and ends with absolute dissatisfaction.

As Emma Messinger knows, she and I both have subscribed to New Orleans e-mail
lists. There are genealogists there who claim they will help people since
they do live in New Orleans. One lady did send me a date that Nicolaus
Noesser and Elizabeth REEB obtained marriage license. But to resolve our
questions we need to see a copy of the license. Now, this is where the New
Orleans lack of help comes in again. She promised to send me a copy...that
was a month and half ago. Another person offered to help me. She found the
record which stated that Louise REEB Werner was from Dehlingen...which was
helpful. But again, I need a copy of the obit where she found this...in
order to see what other information might be there to help.

I am ready to give up...I have said this before in regards to New Orleans.

I feel sorry for anyone who had ancestry in New Orleans who don't live there
with access to the records.

John V. Reeb

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