That is a cool story about those five brothers. On a similar note, my maternal great-great-great grandfather and his three brothers fought in the civil war. One brother was killed at the battle of Perryville. You are right, very few got proper notification. Some might get lucky and a letter from a relative who was serving with them.

As far as the relative that might have went to Algeria, it is only a theory of mine. It is loosely based on people with the same last name living there. That along with the french colonial connection.

Charlemagne! That is so cool. Supposedly I am supposed to be part Scottish, but who knows. As I research I find some things I was told by famly members was false or only partially true.

Oh, I just love it. I was down a rabbit hole the last couple days trying to figure out if my fathers family line way back might have been Jewish. I learned a lot about migrations of the different religions from Alsace and stuff. It was interesting.