The most helpful research on my huband's mother's German families was through church records. I did not see where Salt Lake City had filmed any in Alsacs Loraine and as you said there may not be any that survived the bombing. Perhaps you could find some way to determine if any churches survived in Mayen. You need to know if they were Lutheran or Catholic. Not knowing any German it was quite a challenge to find his family - just had to check for surname and village but I did get them back to the 1600's. Christenings gave the name of the mother and father. Fortunately Salt Lake had filmed the rocords I needed. As I understand it during Hitler's regime families had to trace their families back. I did not find any of these. Hope this is helpful. Millie ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CHESHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message