Dick, There are several simple ways to determine if the town still exists. In this case, the easiest way is to go to < http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/LocTown.asp >, type in heilgenzell, pull down Germany and click on "Start the Search". Two town names come up but only one is your Heilgenzell with location of 48-22/7-54. At this page you have a choice of three maps, E, M and U. I have found that the U, Multimap is often easier to play with in resizing it, when necessary. (Keep in mind that other sites may show a slight difference in latitute and longitude as there are two ways, Decimal Degrees and Degrees, Minutes and Seconds, to identify locations.) Your Multimap of Heilgenzell will give you a slight topographic view and it will start with the identification of todays roads from Heilgenzell to Friesenheim, to Lahr/Schwarzwald, to Dingligen, etc. You can work your way by zooming in or out at the Heilgenzell map for resizing the area. Going back to a web page before you went to the maps, the dot to the right on the < jewishgen > site where you found Heilgenzell will give you the nearby towns in distance of miles or kilometers (your choice). Again, there are other ways, also, but today for your specific question, this is my suggestion. djwber [email protected] ------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dick Fischbach" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 6:32 PM Subject: [Ortenau] Village name? > Can anyone tell me where "Heiligenzell" was located. A distant ancestor > was born in that village in 1748. (Of course, the spelling of that town > may be corrupt and totally erroneous!). > > Dick Fischbach > Arvada, Colorado USA >