In hopes that some new people have joined the list since the last time I posted this message, I'm trying again :
I'm looking for the town in Mecklenburg where my great-grandfather, Hermann Heinrich Ehlers, was born Dec. 12, 1824. Some time before Dec. 1845 he emigrated to America (probably around 1840), when he was married in New Orleans. I believe he may have had an older brother Hermann, who lived in New Orleans. I don't know anything else about his family in Germany. I do know a lot about his life in the US (until his death in Iowa in 1856), and would, of course, be willing to share what I know.
Does anyone have any idea how I can search for information about him, based only on his name, birthdate, and the fact that he gave Mecklenburg as his birthplace when he applied for US citizenship? There is no other indication of his birthplace in any of the many records related to him and his family here that I have found. I can't find him on any passenger lists -- although it's hard to know for a single young man. I have looked through the church registers of all 28 parishes listed in the "west" section of the 1819 census as having Ehlers families (the west seemed to have the highest concentration of Ehlers) .. with no luck. I've also looked in 4 of the parishes in the south section. Obviously, I can try the rest of the south, plus the north, east, and cities, but in the meantime, if anyone can offer a shortcut, I'd really appreciate it! (And, of course, there's also the problem that he was born 5 years after the census, so his parents could have moved to some totally different parish by then anyway.)
Thanks for any clues!!!
Ann Salzmann