I have to apologize but my mailbox became corrupted. There is no virus, so don't worry, it was a technical problem. Someone, I believe it was Jean, asked what a lead document was. This is the first document you can find that will lead you to another, and hopefully to a certified document, like a birth, marriage, death certificate, a shiplist, a military record or just an obit. That obit would be your first lead document leading you to another possibly certified document. Once you have found a deed, a title, a passport, even a letter, it could be your first step to a certified lead-document from where you can trace back. It is wiser to use these documents than taking family legends for granted; often these stories cannot stand up to the facts. But here is a way to separate fact from fiction: the title given a person on a document, like weaver, farmer, burgher, houseowner can be taken as fact. The house number listed on documents does not necessarily entail ownership, unless "Hausbesitzer" (meaning house owner) is written on the document. Houses in Europe were built very subst! antially, mostly of stones or bricks and always with a stone foundation in the basement, it had several floors, because it was cheaper to build high instead of wide because of the smaller acreages available. Farms consisted of several buildings, and most of them were built in a square with a drive-through gate fronting the road of the village. There are whole villages built like this, one farm next to the other. Behind that wide and usually closed drive through gate there were other buildings, like stables, barns, workshops, living quarters, kitchen gardens and a "drive through barn" usually placed on the back side of the property (American cities had similar setups, like garages towards an alley), but their large barns provided a thoroughfare and were leading to the fields that surrounded the village. Most farms were quite substantial, but not only the owner was living there, but also family members and farms hands or milk maids, etc. We really cannot call these people! "servants" because it was not uncommon that such families intermarried with the owner family, and most of them remained with the owners for several generations. So, be sure to check for the title of the individual person of your family that listed on a document. Karen has forwarded an URL to a wonderful glossary giving all professions with an English translation. If the name lists a profession and the added word "Hausbesitzer" (houseowner) would then indicate that house No. 000 was their building, farm, house, manor, etc. Aida