Louis Goetz - 1896 Passport Application Clue (May 2018) Monday, May 7, 2018

Finding the village from which Louis Goetz came is proving to challenging.

At the end of the last visit, from the Trinity Church book records -- In very small print, it is noted that Heinrich's father is Wilhelm Goetz from Sachen-Gotha, and Christine's father is Jakob Heizmann from Wuerttemberg. (US film 954974)

Within five minutes of arrival - I went on FamilySearch.org and searched on "Louis Goetz".
A new record (or one I overlooked) was his passport application from 1896. More importantly were the following facts:

"I was born at Ober Mallia in Saxony" in "Germany" "30 August 1836". I sailed "from Bremen" on "March 1853".

Then I spoke with the librarians to see if they could help translate Ober Mallia into Germany.
Their best guess is "Obermehler".

From Meyers Gazetteer -- Obermehler is located in Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha.

Unfortunately, there are no fiche from this town at LDH. The librarians suggested I email a researcher who can go to the Landeskirchenarchiv eisenach located here.

Christian-Hoske.de -- email sent May 2018
(Update 2020: search info from Christian came up with the wrong ancestor - so need to do further research via a different method. Good excuse to go on a trip to Germany.)

I also looked at the Map Guide to German Parish Registers - Thuringia.
The Obermehler area is located in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha -- Landratsamt Gotha.
There is no LDS microfiche listed for this area.

References:
1. https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/20374051

2. https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3Alouis~%20%2Bsurname%3Agoetz~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1836-1836~

3. http://www.landeskirchenarchiv-eisenach.de/