The Geogen surname mapping site only puts you "in the ballpark" in that it identifies a Landkreis; but it doesn't focus you down to a most likely town/village/parish. I suggest you run some searches at this site - http://www.auswanderer-bw.de/sixcms/detail.php?template=a_artikel&id=6591&sprache=en&PHPSESSID= I got no hits on Odenwalder, but a number on Odenwald; and a few on Hilkert. Try some other name spelling variations. You may well not find your ancestors, but you should run some searches on all the towns in the Landkreis which you've identified, without surnames, for the time period in which your ancestors immigrated. What you're looking for is a pattern which will indicate those specific places that they were most likely to have come from (i.e., the places with the most movement). Not a sure thing, but a better indication. If you can identify high probability towns/parishes, you should then see if the LDS has films of the records for these parishes for the dates of your ancestors. If they do, order them to your nearest LDS branch & dig in to them. If you can identify specific target towns, then search for the local government website, or the local tourism website (often the same site) for those particular places. Then, roam around those sites looking for an e-mail address of a historian, archivist, or whatever that would be most likely to help you. (You will need to use google translate a lot to work your way through these sites, as most do not have an English switch.) You may have to settle for whatever addresses you can find. You can also find web sites for churches in most places. (Be sure to get the right one - Catholic or Lutheran.) However, church pastors, secretaries, & volunteers are pressed for time, and may not respond. Then write them a nice, simply worded message, giving only the details which they might recognize at their location (immigration dates, birth dates, etc). It should be in German & English. There are a number of form letters available on the internet. If the form letters do not fit what you want to say, use google translate (sometimes the results are amusing, but the receiver will appreciate the effort). You can find names/addresses of people with the same surname in the area you've identified; and snail-mail letters to them, but that's a real blunderbuss approach, slow, and often yielding no results. I would only try that if the above targeted approach doesn't work. I would more likely search the films of all the parishes in the Landkreis identified. Good luck. > > We have hit several brick walls on our German genealogy, but after reading > the research hints that Paul provided I am really excited. > > The site http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx? shows our > main two surnames Odenwalder and Hilkert in the same area as our ancestors > left from over a hundred years ago. Does anyone have any helpful hints on > obtaining addresses and contacting people to see if there is a possible > connection? > > I would assume I would need to write the letter in German and English. > > Any hints would be appreciated > > Darlene Odenwalder > > > >