"Anne Chambers" <anne@privacy.net> wrote in message news:8m0rkmFso5U1@mid.individual.net... > Bremick wrote: >> Up until she was married in 1938, my mother in the US had a rather >> well-to-do German pen pal for a couple years. He sent her dozens of >> postcards which I still have. I'm wondering how difficult it would be, >> knowing only his name (Erwin J.Pilz) and his approximate birth date in >> the >> mid-1910's, to determine if he served in and survived the War. Although >> I >> don't have online access to German records, would this type of >> information >> have been recorded and possibly survived today? Would his name have been >> common enough that I would likely need more information to be able to >> zero >> in on him? >> >> > > Try asking on soc.genealogy.german > > -- > Anne Chambers > South Australia > > anne dot chambers at bigpond dot com Do you know the town from which the letters came? The German telephone directory at http://www2.dastelefonbuch.de/ has 8 listings for Pilz Erwin. And there is also a Pilz Erwin listed on Facebook. Being born in the mid-1910's means he is probably not still living, but there might be a family connection with one of those in the phone directory. Wouldn't hurt to make some contacts. We have had good luck before with that tactic. Good luck, Joe in Texas