I likewise believe that my German family settled initially in Fond du Lac Co, WI. The Matthias GERHART/DS/Z family immigrated in 1842 from Ditsfheid, in the Rhein-Pfalz . With Matthias, b. 1801, was wife Maria SCHMITT, son Michel, Eva (maybe Michel's wife) and two other Marias. Already living in Fond du Lac may have been the HAERIG family, relatives of Mathias' mother, from Retterath(near Daun) , Rhein-Pfalz. By the 1860s, this GERHARDS/T/Z family could have gone to Chicago. Anyone know anything about any of these families? Jane in AZ