Good Morning, Friends & Cousins! Yesterday, when I went trough some of the wonderful material my cousin, Allen Lee Garrison sent me from what he gathered when he visited Salisbury (Rowan County), NC, I found a great piece on the Barrier Family. It seems the Barriers, Bergers and Bargers of that county are really all the same family. Rather than try to sort this out and explain it, I have copied the information, and posted it to the web for you at http://members.tripod.com/~suzid/barrier.html - for more about that family, please click on the link for North Carolina sources, or go that site at http://members.tripod.com/~suzid/ncarolina.html, to see Allen's article which appeared in the first "Barger Roots & Branches" - it follows the family of George Henry Barger to Tennessee, Oklahoma and beyond. Karen sent us the German-American Day information from the Pfalz mail list, and I will try to add the links to our new German, Austrian & Swiss page at http://members.tripod.com/~suzid/german.html. Here in the Chicago area it is hard to distinguish a German-American Day from every other day of the year. There are more Germans in Chicago than in any other city on earth except Berlin. A stroll up Lincoln Avenue will take you past German bakeries, sausage shops, cafes and chocolate shops which are marvelous. During the weeks before Christmas, a huge Christmas market, like the one in Nuremberg, is put up in Daley Plaza, right next to City Hall. The oldest restaurant in Chicago is the Burghoff, which brews its own beer and presumably continued to do so right through prohibition! They hold a month-long outdoor Oktoberfest every year. Since they are located next to the Federal Building, it is not unusual to find both judges and jurors enjoying a stein of good cheer during lunch hour. Well, I have certainly wandered off topic, haven't I? Keep working on your genealogy, and we will do our best to keep you informed. Susan Barger Donahue BARGER FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 411 E. Roosevelt Road Wheaton, IL 60187-5564 suzid@tripod.net