Peter; I am no expert on the various branches of orthodox religion so I am skating on thin ice in making any comments. First of all Rekasch is a large village and is less than 50% ethnic German. I assume the remainder is Romanian. If there is not a orthodox church in Rekasch or nearby then kids would have to be baptized in a Roman Catholic church. In such cases there would be a note in the KBs that the kid(or his parents) were orthodox. But with a village with such a large orthodox population I would think there would be a orthodox church. If, as you say, there are ca 100 Miok and Miokovich entries in the Roman Catholic KB then I have to assume that the authors of the book omitted them purposely. If the surname Miok/Miokovich is not Romanian, German or Serbian what is it? Bulgarian? Czech? To directly answer your question. What is the purpose of the Rekasch family book? It appears it is to document of the ethnic German community in Rekasch. It does not seem to be a big problem should you want to research the Miok surname. The Rekasch microfilm is available---I believe that Craig has a set----it is only necessary to go through it and pick out your guys. As an aside to Craig and others possibly interested. We got this film ca 1998----some years ago. It was azo film rather than silver halide film. It is less stable than silver film and last time I looked at some of it I was wondering if it was starting to deteriorate. If one wanted to preserve the originals perhaps it would be wise to convert it to digital format. Dave Dreyer ----- Original Message ----- From: PETER MIKE To: Dave Dreyer Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 10:30 AM Subject: Family Books Dave: I have read all of the comments about family books. I have also conversed via email with Craig Windt about family books. He said I should see what you have to say about my questions. First a couple of statements of fact: Reviewing the FHL Microfilm Rekasch Catholic Church Records 1740 to 1840, I identified 100 entries for Miokovich and Miok, Surnames (you suggested that I send and email to the list asking if Miokovich meant son of Miok? The answer was ov- is son of and ic- is from). There are no Miokovich or Miok families in the Rekasch Family book, 1740-2002 as verified by Craig Windt. Sorin suggested that there is a 99.99% probability that Romanian and Serbian Surnames are not Roman Catholic. Deduction: Since the Miokovich/Miok Surname does not appear in the Rekasch Family Book and appears with 100 entries in the catholic church records, the name is not Romanian, Serbian, or German. Questions: What do you think about the Deduction? In a nutshell, what is the purpose of the Rekasch family book and other family books? Thank you in advance Peter C. Mike (Miok) SOLUTIONS JIT Inc. 9351 Vallarta Trail Tucson, AZ 85749 www.solutionsjit.com pcmike@msn.com c 520-661-3213 p/f 520-749-3544