dj, > Do you know if any of those geographic pieces of land ownerships ever > maintained lists of fiefs, lists of muster, lists of taxes, land ownership > records, archived Guild and Apprenticeship Records, Burgher/Citizenship > Rolls, Wills/Probate Records, School/University Records (although finding > one of my ancestors who could write his own name might be a major > surprise) or any other early lists for the various towns which would > predate the Church Registers. all these records are available (not all for each town). Especially for a former Reichsstadt. Lists of fiefs are also usefull, they give not only the name of the farmer but sometimes also the size of the fields, if he had a house, his taxes, the name of neighbours... And mostly there was not only one landowner in the town. An example: A cloister owned fields in Achern, Gamshurst, Fautenbach, Sasbach. List of these fiefs exists for 1427 (copy of the 18th century), 1529, 1585, 1650, 1680, 1766. Lists of muster exists especially for towns which belonged to Baden before the 19th century. Other possible sources are marriage contracts, contract of inheritance, contracts, protocolls of Gericht, Rat, Amt, accounts (many of the accounts were destoryed in the 19th and 20th century)... BTW: When your ancestor had relatives who died between 1871 and 1900 in Baden there is a good chance to find a contract of inheritance (which often includes a marriage contract). > Then, if such lists might exist at some archival location in the Baden area > would I be imprudent to ask if at some later time when I reach that stage in > chasing my ancestry if I might ask you, for a price, to do personal research > or if I might ask if you could suggest someone who for a fair price might do > any wanted archive research into such lists....again if I ever reach that > point. Sure, I can do it for a fair price. Wendelin ----- Original Message ----- From: "djweber" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 8:46 PM Subject: [Ortenau] Question about "Sources" at the companion web page....and more > Wendelin, > > Piece by piece you have been adding information for us at the companion web > pages you set up for this List, < http://ortenau.speedyspace.de/search/ >. > There is a list of Ortssippenbuecher, Auswanderer, and the many other > sources of soldiers, surnames, farms, Guild members and more including > a new page to allow up to understand the difference in Julian and > Gregorian Calendar dates. This calendar tool is so new I wonder if > others know it exists as yet. > > I realize that much of this information is from books to which you have > found access. But I wonder about more advanced additional earlier details. > With Church Registers starting, if we are lucky, in the middle 1600s I > wonder about other sources before the Church Registers (if we ever reach > that point in our ancestral antiquity). > > We searchers in the towns of the Ortenau understand that the Ortenau was > never a country as we might think of a country. It was part Habsburg, part > Hessian, part Margraviate, part Wuerttembergische, part ecclesiastical, > part Reichsstädt and part of a lot of other pieces. > > Do you know if any of those geographic pieces of land ownerships ever > maintained lists of fiefs, lists of muster, lists of taxes, land ownership > records, archived Guild and Apprenticeship Records, Burgher/Citizenship > Rolls, Wills/Probate Records, School/University Records (although finding > one of my ancestors who could write his own name might be a major > surprise) or any other early lists for the various towns which would > predate the Church Registers. > > Then, if such lists might exist at some archival location in the Baden area > would I be imprudent to ask if at some later time when I reach that stage in > chasing my ancestry if I might ask you, for a price, to do personal research > or if I might ask if you could suggest someone who for a fair price might do > any wanted archive research into such lists....again if I ever reach that > point. > > djweber > [email protected]