This message was on Germanna rootsweb list recently: Marilyn, I am wondering why Thoma chose to get his wife from so far away, in Aurach. It's quite a distance from the Kraichgau. He had to have known the family somehow. Did they originally come from a common area (like Austria)? Elke [end of original message] Taking a stab at exploring why a German man may find his bride elsewhere:: When my husband and I were living at Rhein-Main AFB near Frankfurt [on Main], Hesse in the early 1950s, we frequently saw young German men dressed in antique costumes and similar hats and carrying cloth bags with tools protruding from the bags. They were frequently standing on the highway, awaiting transportation--probably by strangers, even Americans. (Frankfurt had been horribly bombed during WW II, and was being rebuilt slowly--the Goethe Haus early on. The zoo was OK, so were the botanical gardens, and the Messe Hall [fair ground buildings.] Not many Germans at that time had automobiles and so it was strangers who would give these men rides We had a baby in back and did not pick them up. Besides we were not going very far. Most West Germans at that time had bicycles and used rad-wegs [bicycle paths], but not these young men. They were hitch-hiking. They obviously were on the road--not staying any particular place. Their costumes which to this unpracticed eye seemed of a medieval period were quite attractive. I asked our German friend about these young men. I now forget the term she used, but these were apprentice carpenters, it seems--or journeymen. Did she use the term *Auswanderer*? I cannot remember. If these men (journeymen) in the 20th century had to go to other communities to gain work, would that have happened in earlier times? Could that *wandering* account for marriages to a bride *out of district*? Although 1/4 German myself, I have not accumulated much knowledge of German customs and manners. Most of what I have learned since living in Germany for about 18 months has been from genealogists who study and lecture and write about German customs, genealogy, etc--Clifford Neale Smith, John Humphries, et al. I am now referring to a book long on my shelves called The Library: A Guide to the LDS Family History Library edited by Johni Cerny & Wendy Elliott published some years ago by Ancestry Publishing. There is a VERY longish chapter (Chap. 19) Germany and Central Europe. It begins with Historical Background and reminds us of the spotty history of that part of Europe. The author Richard W. Dougherty tells how to navigate the records in the FH Library. I do know that current-day names are given for the various provinces. Some of my people were from Schliesen [Silesia--particularly a village called Ratiborhammer]. This community is now in Poland--Opeln, and thus, one has to look for that Polish heading and for *Raciborz* to find the church records for Ratiborhammer, Hammer being a village outside of Raciborz, formerly Ratibor.. If you can find this book The Library in the reference section of your public library, I recommend you take a look at it. The author Richard W.Dougherty has good words of advice--and some of caution--about how to use the German collection at the FH Library in Salt Lake City. I heard a lecture long ago about a young man who had gained entry to Eastern Germany and had won the confidence of a clergyman in what was then Eastern Germany. That Lutheran minister had told the young man that the church in Eastern Germany would never allow the LDS to film their church records. Since political boundaries have now changed, who knows what has happened? And the church may have changed its mind also. I think we genealogists like to be challenged. We certainly have to learn new ways when we switch jurisdictions to research. E.W.Wallace