In a message dated 5/13/2006 4:10:46 PM Mountain Standard Time, mpettyjohn@comcast.net writes: I found a site with a link to the tax rolls but the link no longer worked. Do you know a site where I can find the villages of that era. Being servants does not mean they were on the staff at the castle. As Aida said, just about every farmer's wife had a servant in the household if they could find one to work for the pay they offered, and the farmers had them as field hands and other helpers with the farm work. ------------------------ Always try non-working links on another browser before giving up. Always try the first part of the URL as a separate search and then see if you can go to other pages on the site if you find it is still there. All of us reach the point when we cannot do any more on the Internet except collect information about where you have to go to find more information. You may be at that point and you will have to bite the bullet and start using other sources. ------------------------- The tax rolls index does not have the places that are in the same estate sorted. The index is by surname and jumps all over the map. You have to know the name of the estate to find all the places if you want to page through the whole thing looking for that. Aida has had that index and maybe she knows if there is an index in the back that would refer you to all the pages for surnames related to one estate. ------------------------ You may find data on specific estates tax rolls in Heimat books associated with your ancestral area but they will be in German. Of course that is not all that important when dealing with place names and surnames associated with each. They read the same in German or English. You may get some help on that by writing to the librarians at one of the Heimat libraries and asking if they have a book that would include your ancestral places. There is the Haus der Heimat in Nürnberg and another in Stuttgart. Bibliothek@hdhbw.BWL.de The librarians at both places know English. Sometimes they will scan stuff they have and Email it to you. Otherwise you get hard copy via snail mail and you should offer to pay for that. ----------------------------- Try Shtetlseeker.com to search for places by coordinates and see what it comes up with if you use general numbers like 50; 13 or 50,7 If you find a place like Zdar and then click on the blue M link in the line with it on the hit list you will get a map showing its location. That should at least show the main places around the Schloss and you should be able to find the German place names for the same places if you need them for parish records. ---------------------- If you can't find a database a map will do if it is detailed enough. You can get one from the University of WI library that would show the location of the Schloss and all the places in the area around it. You may find the same information with German place names on the map at http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/31-50.jpg That map seems to include most of the sites on the MapQuest map generated at Shtetlseeker. ----------------------------------- I don't know why the older maps do not have the same longitude that Aida said is the correct one. Does anyone know when / if latitude designation changed? -------------------------- The only source I know that lists the villages that belonged to a certain noble estate would be the J.G. Sommer books. Even though they were written between 1833 and 1849 they include older history of ownership of the estates listed. The one for Elbogen Kreis may work for you on interlibrary loan. If you want more current history you may have to search with the name of the noble family that was the last owner to see if they sold it and when. Or maybe search with the name of the Estate. The estate may not be named Saar. Find Saar in the book's index and it will take you to the pages that follows the chapter heading (name of the estate). Page backward until you reach the title page for the name of the estate and turther research. The estate may not have the same name as the parish, either. -------------------------- I understand there are some books out there that have maps of the old noble estates of Bohemia but I have yet to find the maps. It is possible that there are also maps that go with the individual district books about the Berni Ruly/Berni Rula. But they would represent an earlier time when districts were not at all the same and noble estates may also have been significantly different in terms of their borders. If any list members knows about these books or the book that has the maps, please tell the list the title and author. Karen