No problem - you just have to know the history of World War I: The northern part of the duchy Schleswig-Holsten became Danish 1920; today Tondern/Toender is Danish. You'll find all records og Toendern/Toender/Tønder at the Archive in Aabenraa http://www.sa.dk/laa/aabtid/UK-intro.htm You'll find them under the Town Tondern/Toender - there is only one parish in Tønder. Older censuses are available at http://ddd.sa.dk/kiplink_en.htm but read the 'What's in the Database' carefully, as the censuses from the period 1864-1920 do not exist. The name of the County: Ribe Leck and Tinningstedt are south of the modern Danish-German border. Inger Denmark

> The name of the County: Ribe > Sorry, this is wrong: The county was 1920-1970 of course Tønder - part of today's Sønderjyllands amt. Inger

"Inger Buchard" <ibuchard@post4.tele.udenspamogpunktum.dk> wrote in message news:<4195b52b$0$33423$edfadb0f@dread15.news.tele.dk>... > No problem - you just have to know the history of World War I: > The northern part of the duchy Schleswig-Holsten became Danish 1920; today > Tondern/Toender is Danish. > You'll find all records og Toendern/Toender/Tønder at the Archive in > Aabenraa > http://www.sa.dk/laa/aabtid/UK-intro.htm > You'll find them under the Town Tondern/Toender - there is only one parish > in Tønder. > > Older censuses are available at > http://ddd.sa.dk/kiplink_en.htm > > but read the 'What's in the Database' carefully, as the censuses from the > period 1864-1920 do not exist.... > > Leck and Tinningstedt are south of the modern Danish-German border. I appreciate the information from you and Joe Pessara and everyone who emailed me. I started looking through filmed 1860 census records at a nearby FHL. Some of the records are quite legible, most marginal, but I can recognize age patterns more quickly than surnames when going through the records. My search so far is based on Lorenz Petersen being born in 1825, almost ten years after his wife Margrethe (1816), with a 10 year old son Hans in 1860. I'm hoping it'll be clear when I run across that pattern that I could have a potential match. The other side of the family will have Peter Hansen Petersen (born 1821) and his wife Elise (born 1823), though I don't know whether they were married early enough for the 1860 census; their first child Peter was born in 1861. This is a family where twins seem to abound, however, so I'll keep my eye open for families with twins in Tonder. So far I haven't run across likely candidates for my family in the online census records at http://ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm, though I'll keep checking. One thing that was helpful was finding this helpful site, pointed out by Hugh Watkins on a mail list: http://www.dis-danmark.dk/kipkort/fronta-e.htm This shows the progress of census transcriptions for the region. It's a lot easier consulting this chart instead of guessing whether my family members have been uploaded yet. Thanks so much to all for all the help so far. ---- saki@ucla.edu