Debra, It is highly unlikely you will find any records before 1640. The Thirty Years War which lasted from 1618 to 1648 was extremely hard on what is now Germany. Many towns that existed before 1618 completely disappeared as a result of the war. In the case of towns that survived, their earlier records were destroyed, completely. To find records from the 1640s is rare, in many cases it was the 1680s before regular record keeping began again. In most cases what the FHL has is what there is. There is another problem, however, some religious denominations is Germany have refused to allow the LDS Church/Library microfilm their records as a result of religious differences. In those cases, the records that do exist can only be viewed in archives in Germany. It depends on what church your ancestors attended, the FHL may have records for Catholic churches in an area, and not have existing records for the Evangelical / Lutheran churches in the same area. There are a few places that managed to save their records from before the war, but that is a hit and miss proposition. Marleen Van Horne