In a message dated 98-07-29 10:05:12 EDT, you write: > Joan: The Ettingen was a mistyped. Sorry. Has anyone done research in > Ittingen and gotten any documents from there? Eleanor, it is Ittlingen--not Ittingen--I mention that since there just MAY be a town of the other name also. Ittlingen is in the area called the Northern Kraichgau which is a region in Southwestern Germany near Stuttgart. This is a major region from which our early arriving Pennsylvania Germans emigrated. Many "Germans" arriving in Pennsylvania in the 1700s from this area were originally Swiss who moved into the Kraichgau after the 30 Years War (1648 and on) when many Germans had been killed in the War and a great amount of property damage had occurred. The Swiss who were looking for areas of expansion to house their growing population moved into this area which had been especially hard hit during the War. Some moved there (Mennonites for example) due to persecution in Switzerland. That is just a simplified explanation of the background--of course it is really a much more complex subject than that. Aside from the information on the Geigers of Ittlingen (those connected to Rev. Henckel) from Annette Burgert's book 18th Century Emigrants from the Northern Kraichgau to North America I don't know if anyone actually has rented the Ittlingen Lutheran Church records to check them for themselves. I have thought about that and just don't have time for it. I think that would be an excellent project if some members of this list would like to work together on it. I am certain that Ittlingen Lutheran records would be available for rent from the LDS and to get a complete picture it might be advisable to also rent Berwangen and Richen Lutheran records (and possibly Catholic records as well if any exist for those towns). Perhaps records from Ehrst�dt would also prove helpful in determining how Anna Mary Geiger (wife of Melchior Shoener) fits into this picture also. A group of you who are interested in this family could get together and each rent one of those films and then copy the Geiger entries and share with the others to help put the complete story together. If several people worked on this it might not be difficult to accomplish. What do you think about that idea? It would take maybe 4 people to rent Lutheran and Catholic records for Ittlingen, Berwangen, Richen, and Ehrst�dt. Joan