JoAnn; The Modosch family book by Porte and his wife, covers the period 1781 to 1854. It is now out of print. There are no Rettingers listed in the book which means that your Rettringers arrived in Modosch sometime after 1854. Rettinger is a common surname in nearby Stefansfeld and Setschan and is likely the origin of the Modosch Rettingers. There are family books for Stefansfeld and Setschan but I cannot make a connection with your Carl Rettinger and any of those in these two family books. Obviously there is a one generation gap between your hand-me-down family history and Rettinger data in published sources. This is a very common problem with Banat researchers. So far as I know, on one has copies of the Modosch KBs after 1854 which is where you will find the data needed to bridge the gap. You might consider contacting Marta Istvan who is a family history researcher located in Gr Kikinda. Martha is knowledgeable about archives in this region of the Banat with location of KBs, has a good reputation among Banat list subscribers, communicates in English and has very reasonable rates. Should you want to contact Marta her address is; marta.istvan@yahoo.com If you look at the distribution of the Samson surname in the passenger ship database at; http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~banatdata/DDB/HomePage.htm It is fairly widely distributed among villages of the lower Temesch and Bega so it is difficult to pinpoint an initial place to search. Dave Dreyer ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg and JoAnn Douthwaite" <douthwaite@wi.rr.com> To: <Banat-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 6:51 PM Subject: [BANAT-L] Rettinger > My Great Grandfather and Grandfather came from Modosch. My Great Grandfather is Carl Rettinger. He came over to Ellis Island in 1910. My Grandfather, Johann Rettinger, came over in 1922 to Ellis Island and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The rest of the Rettinger clan came over to the U.S. and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Does this ring a bell to anyone? Johann was born in Cavos, Yugoslavia in 1890. He was a baker. His father, Carl, was a furrier. Johann's Grandfather was Nikolas Samson (obviously his mother's father). > > JoAnn Douthwaite