Patrizia,
I think I may have found my paternal gg grandfather’s birthplace in Leutesheim. After individually checking 400+ Baden Catholic church books for a marriage record, I realized that Ancestry has 28 million Lutheran (Germanic) records on line. For several reasons the birth record I found fits the man I am looking for. I want to mention two things: 1) in all those thousands of Catholic records only one or two Catholics with the Ross name were discovered 2) Leutesheim was teeming with Rosses. From 1825-1835 there were thirty legitimate Ross children born to a large number of different couples. The previous and following decades showed more Rosses.
Why had I been looking at Catholic records? These paternal gg grandparents had their infant son baptized in a Catholic church in Chicago in 1856 (arrived in America in 1855). Why? There were Protestant churches in Chicago at the time. Therefore, I believed Jacob Ross must have been a Catholic. I have solid evidence that his wife (1831-1899) was not. I am puzzled by this baptism of my great grandfather. But to be very sure, I am going to take several months and look at Catholic Baden birth records for 1826-1828 to be certain another Jacob Ross (who lives to adulthood) does not appear. The indexing of the Catholic Baden records is not 100%.
And the marriage record? It is possible since my gg grandmother was pregnant when she left Europe that they were married in America and merely posed as husband and wife on the manifest. Perhaps that is their marriage does not show up in the Bas Rhin or in Baden.
Thank you for note. I was hoping to hear from you.
He should be in the book because it has not only the Württemberg but also Bavarian Franconian ministers.