The goals of the Upper Rhine Jewish Geographic Origins group are to:

(1) establish connections among genealogists interested in the former Jewish communities of the Upper Rhine River Plain of the Grand Duchy of Baden Germany (today part of Baden-Württemberg).The Rhine River Plain of Baden (today Baden-Württemberg) Germany lies between the Upper Rhine and the Black Forest.The Jewish populations of these small rural communities (which included Altdorf, Schmieheim, Rust, Ettenheim, Friesenheim, Kippenheim, Lahr, Nonnenweiler, Orschweier, Rust and Kenzingen) are believed to have swelled near the beginning of the 18th century over a hundred years before Jews were required to adopt surnames.

(2) employ our genetic genealogy to study the pre-eighteenth century geographical origins of the former Jewish communities of the Upper Rhine River Plain of Baden).

(3) look for genetic connections among members.

You can help by joining us if your any of your ancestry may have lived in one of these villages or perhaps was buried in the Schmieheim cemetery (a common burial ground in this area). The group administrator and perhaps additional members can help with some of the genealogical records available for these villages. We'd like to hear from you about other villages that we might wish to include.

Please join us if your one of your ancestors lived in an Upper Rhine Jewish village in Baden, Germany. To verify validity of the members, please send me (padreifuss@me.com) an email with your relative names, the village name and possible dates. Indicate whether this might be a patrilinear or matrilinear connection.