Hello Dieter, Don, Pat, Curt? and listmembers, First, let me thank you all for working on this with me. I hope this topic is not now boring several of you on the list! It appears there are a few scenarios being put forward as possible answers for finding these two towns. 1) Gross Buetzin - in the former Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in today's Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Azelshof as an "unknown" but with three possible closeby names: Amalienhof, Annenhof and Axelshof. 2) No Gross Buetzin - but rather go with "Gross Buelten" (southeast of Hannover and west of Braunschweig). This would make it the former Kingdom of Hannover. Azelshof is again an "unknown" but there is an "Asel" 10 miles from Gross Buelten. 3) Gross Buetzin (now spelled "Gross-Butzin") - again in the Mecklenburg area - then with the JewishGen shtetl seeker and the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex system - get "Eichelshof" for the Azelshof - and thus find it in Baden-Wurttenberg near the Neckar River. 4) "Butzen" in Brandenburg - and "nothing close to Azelshof" nearby. 5) And then of course there is the map program (maps.excite.com) that wrongly told me that both town names not only exist, but indiscriminately placed them in the middle of the country - leading me to the postings about "Thuringia".!! (as Dieter pointed out, any town name it doesn't recognize, it simply places "there"). A thought - where is that "GEOS" program again? I could try both names in that and see what it finds too... It's looking to me like Gross Buetzin in MS is the likely place to start - and it matches "exactly" to what the parish registers said. (with the umlaut over the u of course, instead of my ue written in instead). Then, that "Axelshof" Dieter mentioned as one possible nearby location is really "close" in spelling to the "Azelshof". Not sure if it is close "by sound". Dieter, might I take you up on your offer to call Gross Buetzin tomorrow and see what they think a likely "Azelshof" might be? Please let me know if this is a toll call of any kind for you - so I can reimburse any costs you have to place a call. As for specific names/dates you asked about - they would be: 1) For Gross Buetzin: Ernst WITT - born 08 Oct 1854 2) For Azelshof: Maria W KRUEGER - born 31 May 1859. Family says her father: Christian F Carl KRUEGER was born 23 April 1824. (married to a Sophia HIllman?) Ernst & Maria's birthdates are from their US death certificates and therefore are not yet "proven" until the actual birth records are found and Maria's father's birthdate comes "from family" so I don't really know if it is accurate or not. (Again, Dieter, please contact me privately if you run into any costs on this so I can compensate you....) I find Maria's siblings Hannah, Fred. and Whilamena here in the USA also, but have never found the parents, so don't know if they left DEU or not.... debbie (One good thing from all this - I went to my basic Encyclopedia Britannica last night and found a _lot_ of information! Page 38 to page 180 and a great overview to help my general understanding as I move more and more into research there...)