Being an old fogey here who's been working to understand Bavaria and German while sitting at a computer in Arizona, USA, I just came upon a website which would have helped me SO much at the beginning, and even after all these years, help quickly put so much in perspective for me. This morning, searching for a map just showing Mittlefranken and it's Kreis', I came upon wikipedia.org, landing first here: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelfranken This website has an abundance of information which help one quickly understand (and locate!) the many land divisions, kreis, etc, etc, within Bavaria. I haven't had time to cruise that whole website, but as it's a free encyclopedia website, there may be an incredible amount of help here. I have nothing there to promote - just thought it might help a lot of researchers like me! Ron Klotz-Zellhoefer Wisconsin>Arizona [email protected] http://zelltree.com