Thanks to the wonderful help in SLC, I was able to interpret the Danish census records of his ancestors. It helped that they gave me a hand out -- of the entries in Danish for the census and then the English equivalent. I was quite proud of myself esp working in Danish records where the surname changed with each generation. For those of you who have not this joy -- the surname of the child was taken from the first name of the father so the children of Hans Pedersen (whose father was named Peder something) became someone Hansen. Such fun. If they had stopped the practice one generation earlier --I would be Marilyn Mortensen rather than Hansen. <smile> Take care. Marilyn -----Original Message----- From: Cary Anderson <drcary@cox.net> To: germanna_colonies <germanna_colonies@rootsweb.com> Sent: Fri, Sep 9, 2011 8:54 am Subject: [GERMANNA] Ortsippenbuch Ortsippenbuchs are wonderful! After I had learned to interpret the German Church records of my "Katz village" Hocdorf and organized all my direct ancestry there, an Ortsippenbuch was published. I ordered a copy from the author-editor and was certainly excited when it arrived. Imageine my surprise when I found that I had made only one error of interpreting a record, but lo and behold so had the author/editor made one error. I could see how that had happened as he did not have access to the American side of that group of imigrants. But best of all, the book also included Tax and military records, which with my finds in surrounding villages of Katz ancestry, I was able to document the Katz family back to 1475 in Hochorf-Nagold. Even if you have an Ortsippenbuch for you village, I really think it wise to get the church microfilm and look up at least your direct line. I think it is great to have the Godparents names. It is rare that I have found close relatives as Godparents, but in Hochdorf, the Katz village, everyone descends from a Katz someway. Some more than others--I found one that had descent at least a dozen ways from the original Katz. About 300 left for America over the years. This is the joy of using the original churchbooks. Yes, it is a struggle at the beginning, but I have seen many folks at the FHC here become able to extract the important information, or at least identify persons who who be relatives. Usually, someone is around who can help. Also, it is a lot of fun trying to decipher the script so you can look up the words in a German-English dictionary. Cary TN Germanna Reunion - Sept. 9-11 http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/easttennesseereunion2011.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GERMANNA_COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message