The following was printed in the: RootsWeb Review Source: RootsWeb-Review@rootsweb.com Subject: Missing Links, Vol. 5, No. 3 MISSING LINKS: RootsWeb's Genealogy Journal Vol. 5, No. 3, 19 January 2000, Circulation: 387,429+ (c) 1996-2000 Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley Editor-at-Fault: Julia M. Case Co-Editor-to-Blame: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG <You can subscribe to this e-mail Newsletter by sending a subscribe message to: RootsWeb-Review-requst@rootsweb.com > SUCCESSFUL LINKS: THE CASE OF THE OBVIOUS OVERSIGHT by John T. Halbert <halbert@mail3.bunt.com> For more than 30 years, on and off, I had attempted to find the community in Baden from which William G. HAAS had emigrated in the 1850s to Scott County, Illinois, followed by his migration to Lake City, Wabasha County, Minnesota in the late 1860s. The trail appeared to be simple. Someone in the family had written "Kirk" on one of his documents, but for 30 years I was not able to find anywhere in Baden where Kirk could fit. Through the U.S. Air Force I was lucky enough to be assigned to Germany, near Kaiserslautern in the state of Rheinland Pfalz -- a neighbor state to Baden. I also began to learn "Gut Deutsch" and continued my quest with my newly acquired knowledge and still drew a blank. I had considerable assistance from the experts at nearby Rheinland Pflaz family history center, German researchers at the local LDS Family History Center, vendors at various genealogical conferences, and professional wizards for German research, but still found no connection with anything with "Kirk" anywhere in the German-speaking world. My breakthrough came when Wolfgang Mueller at the Baden State Archives in Karlsruhe took me under his wing and came up with a list of everyone named Haas who had applied for emigration in the 1850s-1860s -- and Bingo! Out jumped Wilhelm Georg Haas of KORK, Baden. I was floored at the mass oversight by myself and all those who had worked on this quest for me in the past. Why in the world hadn't one of us thought of a vowel change with a basic e, o, or u switch from the "i"? Linda lhaasdav@mindspring.com Home.page http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~haas Marion.Co.AR http://www.rootsweb.com/~armarion List hostess for -h.a.a.s/l.e.w.a.l.l.e.n/w.a.s.h.i.n.g.t.o.n n.c