Sue Griffin asked: >Michael A. FREITAG b. Sept 9, 1864 in Witsburg?, Bavaria. He >immigrated to US in 1888 or 1890. He was the son of John FREITAG >b. Houssen, Bavaria and Eva Werthmann b. Houssen, Bavaria. They >were Catholics. Any idea on a church I could possible write to in >Witzburg or Houssen to see if there were any other siblings,etc. I believe that "Witzburg" is an Anglicization of Würzburg, a city located on the Main River southwest of Frankfurt am Main. Würzburg was a Catholic area, which matches the information that you give above. It is my understanding that Catholic church records from Würzburg and vicinity are held at a centralized location in Würzburg. You could start out by seeing what Catholic church records the LDS Church has microfilmed in Würzburg and vicinity (www.familysearch.org). Search the Family History Library Catalog listings. If LDS does not have microfilmed records, someone on this list should be able to give you the address of the office in Würzburg that has Catholic church records from that area. Keep in mind that Würzburg could refer to the surrounding area as well as to the city. If you don't find records in the city, you should consider this possibility. In that case, you may have to obtain all available records from the U.S. (i.e., New World) to see if any of them lists the town of origin. I believe that "Houssen" probably refers to Hessen, which is covers a wide area west and northwest of Würzburg. If you have not already done so, I would check the IGI (International Genealogical Index) listings for FREITAG at your local LDS Family History Center. You may find entries there that would give you the town in Hessen for John (Johannes?) FREITAG and Eva WERTHMANN. If not, I next would try to obtain all available records in the U.S. (i.e., New World) to see if any of them mentions a specific town for FREITAG or WERTHMANN. This would include the ship passenger list from the U.S. side. If the ship that they came on departed from Hamburg, be sure to check the Hamburg passenger list (i.e., record from the German side; available on microfilm at LDS Family History Center). That would give the town(s) of origin. David F. Schmidt Walnut Creek, CA, USA dfschmidt@earthlink.net