Gavin, I'm sorry it took a few days to get back to your inquiry. I lost a brother to catastrophic illness Dec. 5th and funeral arrangements have taken time and energy. Our Schmitt line (both Schmidt and Schmitt before 1700) comes from the Odenwald area of North Baden, once part of the "Palatinate", capital Heidelberg. The main village is Muelben, now incorporated into the "community" of small villages in the area and known as "Waldbrunn". The parish jurisdiction was (and remains) both the Catholic and Lutheran churches in the main village, Struempfelbrunn. Lines of these Schmitts seem to originate in Scheidenthal (near Schlossau) and Schollbrunn (near Mosbach). I have other Schmidt ancestral lines (there are five all together), one in Muensingen, Canton Bern, Switzerland (Schmitt is the most numerous surname in that country), another in the present Saarland (near the capital, Saarbruecken). So it's not really easy to answer your questions. I have several collateral lines of Schmidt, Schmitt relations as well, one from the Homburg/Saar area, others from the "Sickingen lands" (former baronetcies now part of Rheinland-Pfalz state near Landstuhl and Kaiserslautern. There are also a number of Schmitt connections from my Grandmother's family in the Daun area of the Eifel district (north of the Mosel river between Koblenz and Trier. Where does you Schmitt family originate? I have come to the conclusion after many years of family "research" that everyone of German extraction is related to one Schmitt or another! This certainly makes for a vast extended family, but none the less interesting. It is so much more of a challenge to research a common name like mine than a less "popular" one. Let me hear from you. Best wishes, Joe in Oakland CA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gavin Schmitt" <gavin6942@yahoo.com> To: <GERMANS-WI-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 12:45 PM Subject: [GERMANS-WI] For Joe Schmitt > Joe: > > Just curious about your Schmitt line. > > You can contact me directly at gavin6942@yahoo.com > > Thanks! > > Gavin Schmitt > > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. > http://mailplus.yahoo.com > > > ==== GERMANS-WI Mailing List ==== > Just a reminder Listers and Newbies, > > When "Replying" to a message, delete all except the most pertinent parts of the original message. It reduces the size of the mail and eliminates unnecessary re-reading of an already posted message. > >