Nancy M. Atkinson wrote: > I wrote to Pfarramt Wöllnau 04838 Eilenburg Germany (Thank you Don!) on May 16th and actually received a response in the mail TODAY! I sent 2 IRC's and asked them to check their baptism registers for a record of my 2nd great-grandfather Gottlieb ZSCHAU. I provided all the information I have on him. > Anyway, I think I received an extract from the Wollnau Church book of Gottlieb's Baptism rcd. It is not the original register entry but really a certified extract (on curious old prewar forms). After this paper the first name of your ancestor was not Gottlieb but Gottlob. > Unfortunately, his father's name isn't mentioned (We think it was Gottlieb as well) The paper says, that Gottlob Zschau was born illegitimate. His father is unknown, not mentioned in the original register. > and it doesn't look like his mother's maiden name was listed either. The register only contains her family name: Joh. Rosine Zschau. "Joh." must be Johanna or Johanne. The only way to find out more about her is looking to other parish entries. Isolated data are of little use. Now you know the right church book, perhaps the mormons have the film. > But, on the back of the baptism extract is a list of other people, possibly godparents or witnesses to the event ... Yes. The small printed writing on the top of the form says, that the parish priest should enter here only those witnesses which are identifiable as ascendants (a Nazi precept, I guess). Surely they did not read that in Wöllnau, they simply use up the old forms and transcribed the original entry of three godparents. > I also received a hand-written letter, presumably asking for payment > and something else that I can't quite make out. They let you know, that they searched in the Church books of Wöllnau and/or Battaune for you. They could not find further data within the span you told them. They send greetings to you and you have to pay 50 DM by transfer to the given account. (Thats is a correct price). * Dieter