Don, Your posting of 12/9/2008 smacks of being a solicitation, which is forbidden on most genealogy mail lists. In any case, many of us have experiences which contradict your statements. To start with Al Gore did not invent the internet. The internet was around long before Al Gore came on the scene. I have been told by my German cousins that a well written letter in English is preferred to one badly written in German. The experiences of many of us is that letters to churches will not be answered. The reason given by churches is that their responsibility is to their "flock" and not to genealogy. One researcher visited a village church office and was shown the "dead letter" box where genealogy requests were "filed." I would like one of our German researchers to confirm the statement "Government sets the fee schedule." This is the first I have heard of this. At 02:01 AM 12/9/2008, you wrote: >From: "Don Watson" <dwats@cox.net> >Subject: Contacting German by letter or other means is routine > >Hi, > >I'm sure everyone has had experiences with research in Germany. I've been >writing letters and making telephone calls since 1956. When Al Gore invented >the internet, I jumped in with both feet. I confided with Germans in Germany >about the proper approach. I met with several in Germany. I met in Dallas, >Texas, with a gentleman from Germany. That's how I developed my website >procedures, > >http://members.cox.net/hessen/hsstory.htm > >which leads to lots of other links. I've been to Germany many times. I >lived there. > >Since 1956 I have had one entity fail to respond and one respond by sending >the response to my incorrect snail-mail mailing address. We worked around >that, of course. I include address instructions at my website. I use E-Mail >and the telephone to determine the appropriate entities in Germany to >contact, whether church or civil archives. Sometimes it takes more than one >E-Mail, more than one telephone call to nail it down. I rely heavily upon >the German telephone directory, > >http://members.cox.net/hessen/telephones.htm (the only one with >instructions) > >for addresses and telephone numbers of churches and municipal government. I >use GOOGLE in an effort to acquire E-Mail addresses. > >All of my experiences have been incorporated into my website. If you have >questions about contacting Germany, it is all there. While Germans are >formal and direct in government, church staff are most cordial. I have the >advantage of being able to speak, read, and write German. I offer my >expertise to everyone through my website. Remember that the Germans don't >conduct research for free. Government sets the fee schedule, and some >churches follow it. Many churches accept simple donations. Read about it at >the website. > >I'm older now and unable to devote full time and attention to German >research. However, if you have a question that CANNOT BE ANSWERED at the >website, contact me, dwats@cox.net for assistance, and the other E-Mail >addy, dons-translations@cox.net for translations. > >Between 1956 and 2005 ALL of my services were free. Hundreds of letters, >telephone calls, E-Mail messages, accurate translations. By 2005 the demand >had become so great that I was spending more time at the computer than >elsewhere. I began to charge for translations at that point. That resulted >in a big drop in the number of inquiries, freeing up time for me to be with >my wife, our children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren. > >Contact with German archives is possible and productive via letter, >telephone, and E-Mail. Just don't do it in the English language with lots of >extraneous information in your inquiry. Need a letter in German? They are >free at my website. You can adjust the info as indicated there. Read >carefully. Give the Germans the option to respond to you in English. An >exception to that is the archives for the Evangelical Church in >Hessen-Kassel, >at Kassel, where English-language inquiries are accepted, but that's not >Rhein-Pfalz. Don't send a Rhein-Pfalz inquiry to Kassel! > >Thanks for reading this........... > >:-) >Don ____________________________________________________________ Click for online loan, fast & no lender fee, approval today http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/fc/PnY6rx9LUCSE2Libgff5gy9pyZ3pAy6GKvbQaSIGgRqNipUwY45Ha/