MY ALSATIAN ROOTS.

MY ALSATIAN ROOTS. I identified somewhat with the Alsatians in the previous post because my name —Philip Schaefer—comes from an Alsatian ancestor: Philippe Baptiste Schaefer. I have come to believe that he came to Chicago soon after the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Although the name Schaefer is German, I imagine from his first two names that he considered himself French and that he emigrated after Alsace became part of Germany. I don’t know much about him because he seems to have abandoned his family when my grandfather was 12.