Folks, I have learned recently from a short biography of my great-grandfather, Charles C. Fredigke (b. 1839), published in the 1896 history of Chicago, that he was a druggist's apprentice in Cassell prior to moving to Chicago with his family in August 1857. Do apprenticeship records for the 1850s still exist for Cassell? This same bio notes that his father, Michael Fredigke (b. 1807), was a master shoemaker in Cassell. This fact seems confirmed by the 1849 Cassell business directory which lists Michael. Did guilds exist for shoemakers and do records survive for such guilds? If Michael was an apprenticed shoemaker would there be apprenticeship records for the 1820s? Jim Otton Lakewood, Colorado **************Check all of your email inboxes from anywhere on the web. Try the new Email Toolbar now! (http://toolbar.aol.com/mail/download.html?ncid=txtlnkusdown00000027)