Hi Kathleen. I have never heard or seen the name "DEAO" before. Further, there is no single occurrence of this name today, all over Germany in GeoGen. Finally, the spelling is absolutely untypical for German. Would it be possible to see a historical German document with that name?  May be I can deciffer what the German spelling has been?  The spelling may have changed after emigration to the U.S. as in so many other cases. Regards, Thierry   Dr. Thierry P. Dietrich D-61250 Usingen ________________________________ Von: Kathleen Deao <[email protected]> An: [email protected] Gesendet: Freitag, den 27. März 2009, 17:13:27 Uhr Betreff: Re: [HESSE] Mainz, Rheinhessen, Hessen Hi, Nancy Thanks for your note. I agree the Old German is tricky, but actually, I DID recognize the name on the film. It looked right to me. What I hope to do next is find this person after his christening. Parents? siblings? emigration? I first found the Deao name in 1850 in Illinois, but Eli Deao was born in 1824 in NY. His father was from Germany, and his mother from NY, but I can't find his immigration, their marriage, and don't know the New York county. So I thought I'd try to research in Germany, but hardly know where to begin. Is there a Hesse sight that might give me some direction? JOANNES DEAO - Christened - 17 FEB 1809  Dom Katholisch, Mainz, Rheinhessen, Hessen Thanks again for your interest. Kathleen Gordon Deao ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message