Maurine, This will not be the most exact answer to your questions. After two days of Rootsweb being down, a window for incoming List e-mail opened, some messages arrived and then a construction company cut a telephone cable down the street so I have your message but I do not have computer ability to check any on-line details for you. For a temporary answer while the telephone cable is being repaired, I do have several thoughts. Considering how grossly flawed the IGI information is, the idea of an Ignatz/Ignaz Schwab of 1792 or 1793 being your Ignaz Schwab might be as safe as your opening a telephone book today to any page, pointing with with a pencil and accepting the idea that the individual pointed out in that manner must be a close relative of yours. Much of the early IGI information was done for religious reasons and not with any genealogical intent or perhaps ability. However, those IGI listings can be a lead for you to search into and to check. I am not biased against the IGI listings but I am biased against using any IGI information without confirmation of the specific information. In my own searchings I have attempted to read enough filmed Church Registers comparing various findings in those Church Registers against patron IGI listings and against batch filings which have identified so many found IGI errors that I must have that bias against using any IGI unconfirmed information. I have no idea how common the surname Schwab may be in any area of Germany but I imagine that today there are so many individuals by that surname that the German on-line telephone directory would not give you any information without your identifying a name or a town. I might imagine that in your time period of search that percentage-wise, Schwab was also a common Germanic surname. As for Busenbach, the town is to the southeast of Karlsruhe, probably less then 10 kilometers and it would be directly south of Durlach. This area is far to the north of the Ortenau and even north of the town of Rastatt. A search on the town name, Busenbach at < http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm > wold lead to a map of the area. My 1937 atlas identifies Rheinau (with the old spelling mentioned by Wendelin) as being at least 30 kilometers south of Straßburg, well to the southwest of Offenburg and even to the west-southwest of Lahr. Again the web site above should give you a map location but remember you would be searching in France and not Germany. I would have to believe, IGI errors or not, that any Schwab from near Karlsruhe would be much too far away from your wanted location but Rheinau is much closer to the Ortenau. Looking at a more current map, Rhinau is to the northeast of Colmar and Sélestat with neighboring German towns across the river of Kappel-Grafenhausen, Wittenweier, Kippenweier, Mahlberg and Ettenheim being about as far distant as Lahr, which isn't that far. At various times in the past, this portion of the Alsace was much more Germanic than French and was under Germanic control. Another web site to check for location although it will not offer a map is the < http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp > site which will offer latitude and longitude (although I have forgotted it they give you the information in Degrees, Minutes and Seconds or in Decimal Degree format) and then through its "nearest neighbours" link which will identify nearby town locations. Maurine, when you receive this you can believe that some hard working telephone employee has finished his hours standing in a hole in the ground splicing wire after wire from that broken cable and if I have not given you a proper answer, I should be able to receive your further request so I could then try better. djweber [email protected] ---------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maurine LeBlanc" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 11:07 PM Subject: [Ortenau] Rhinau in Alsace > Wendelin, > > You informed me that Karolina Schwab was born in Rhinau. Is this in the > Ortenau area? > > I typed Ignatz Schwab in the IGI file and found two. It indicated that > both > were born in Busenbach, Karlsruhe in the years of 1793 and 1792, which > date > wise would be close. The question - is Busenbach, Karlsruhe in the > Ortenau > area and close to Rhinau? Sorry for my lack of knowledge of your country. > > Thank you, again. > > Maurine