Hi, My Kunz/ Wenniger families were from this area, too. I have not worked on them myself, so Fred, thank you for the great information! It's why I lurk on this list. One of my cousins used the LDS records to take the family back several generations and many surnames, so that's definitely the research route to follow. Do your homework online and order the films for your local LDS Family History Center. I understand that if you pay just a little more, they will keep the films at your center and they will always be available to you. For the right films, this would be a good thing, because there is a lot of information which can be challenging to extract. My cousin's work also provided the villages. My families came from 4 different villages. They were all on the same road, which makes sense. Try Google or MSN Live mapping. It's beautiful there. From an aerial view it looks like a lush patchwork quilt. Wine country, I believe. Is anyone else researching in the Heilbronn area? Diane Hettrick, Seattle dhettrick@earthlink.net On Dec 9, 2008, at 5:52 AM, Fred H Held wrote: > Vicky, > > The city of Heilbronn is a local administrative > office (in the US we would call it a county > seat.), and as such may have been a reference > point for a local village (just as we would do). > There is the possibility he was from a local village. > > There are many records available for rent at your > local LDS Family History Center for Heilbronn. > These are the subject entries where the online > LDS Family History Library catalog shows. > ================================= > >> From: "Vicky L Hannam" <vhannam@sympatico.ca> >> A Canadian birth certificate of one of his sons lists my >> mothers father, August George Birn as being born on Dec 11 1878 in >> Hielbron Wurttemberg. >> >> The newly opened Canadian immigrant database has him arriving in >> Canada in 1904 from Liverpool. >> >> >> Is there anybody that can point me in the right direction of where to >> start in Germany. I am not able to come up with any Birns surnames in >> Germany. >>