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?

"Bremick" <remick@cox.net> wrote in message news:idetqd$jf2$1@news.eternal-september.org... > 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? > 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