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I am researching my family history. My father's family emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 1870s, along with millions of others. Their history since arriving in the States is very well-documented. Their history in Europe, however is almost non-existent. My great-great-grandfather and his siblings stated only that they were born in "Germany" and that their father Julius Ferdinand Pech had died in Germany when they were young. From online records that I've accessed on Ancestry.com and elsewhere, I can't find any exact matches to Julius Ferdinand Pech. And Julius Ferdinand were not particularly common names in the German states in the 1820s. I have found a birth & baptism record for a Ferdinand Pechau in Prussia in 1824. Could Pech and Pechau be variants of the same name? Maybe it was shortened when his kids came to America? Or maybe Pechau was a more formal version used (this is a church record that I found)? Any help or insight is appreciated.