Rply to lady looking for hometown of her ancester Henry Schmidt. I spent 40 years looking for the hometown/birthplace of my ancestor Folkert Weerts Gerdes who came to the US in 1857 from Ockenhausen, Hesse Darmstadt which is in the North of Germany . I did not know his middle name..only an initial and I did not know the Ockenhausen. I wrote every living member of the family I could find and visited many of them. I went to the National Archives to look through the ships passengers, had inquiries in the Genealogical Helper, checked the books with passenger lists in the DAR library and elsewhere...Finally a kind fellow genealogist from Oestfriesland helped me dig and pushed me to work even harder...and we found a Gerdes traveling on a ship The Gerhardt with his cousin and the cousin's family that finally we could say yes, this man and his cousin are a match. After finding this, one of my cousins went through her things and found an obituary notice for Folkert Gerdes that gave ! the birthplace and it was a match. I had looked at microfilm and microfische til I was nearly blind without finding it. I had looked at every other record that genealogists look at...Don't give up PS I found my ancestor Andreas Kehl's birthplace of Storndorf Germany only through an impressive certificate about the birth of his brother that some distant cousin had preserved and I went to visit. Both Gerdes and Kehl are so common in Germany...don't let the commonality of the name or lack of luck discourage you...keep trying..betty richardson HESSE-D-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > ATTACHMENT part 1 message/rfc822 HESSE-D Digest Volume 05 : Issue 39 Today's Topics: #1 Military record help [] #2 Hirstein/Franken? [Ed Maul ] #3 RE: Schmidt-Smith ["Diether Caspritz" #4 Schilling's in Hessen [Ed Maul ] Administrivia: To unsubscribe from HESSE-D, send a message to HESSE-D-request@rootsweb.com that contains in the body of the message the command unsubscribe and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. NEVER hit your reply button to unsubscribe. Web Site for HESSEN, GERMANY, is at http://members.cox.net/hessen/index.htm Many towns in Germany have the same name! Add the 5-digit zip code in front of the name! Zip codes explained, http://members.cox.net/hessen/index.htm To unsubscribe or to look for old messages, go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/HESSE.html ______________________________ > ATTACHMENT part 2 message/rfc822 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 07:27:35 -0800 From: To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Military record help Hello, I have a military discharge and I'm wondering where I can research to find out where this person actually served. Did they generally stay around their home grounds? Here's the translation info I have; Dukedon Nassau Brigade IInd Regiment IInd Line Company Appointed First Lieutenant and Commander of the Dukedoms IInd Regiment, George Hefeld, knight of the Lowlands Kingly Military Wilhelms-Ordens do herwith make known the following flank of the Dukedoms General Comman from the 28th of January 1841 Number G.C. 146 Section 1, the soldier Johann George Dauer from Wisper district L; Scheyalbach, regarding the merit of your service with the Dukedoms Military.......He is discharged from the Dukedoms Military Service since the 1st of April 1835 under the number 25,165 of the main opened-book as soldier in the year 1835, Release No. 7 and he had during that time served with honor. Any direction is greatly appreciated. Thank you Julie Dauer ______________________________ > ATTACHMENT part 3 message/rfc822 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 11:18:01 -0500 From: Ed Maul To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Hirstein/Franken? I've looked at the maps on the web and it appears that Hirstein/Franken is in the Rhine Palatinate. searching for the surname SOMMER and the place to find it's district etc. Thanks, Ed http://members.tripod.com/~Silvie/Schilling.html ______________________________ > ATTACHMENT part 4 message/rfc822 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 18:56:46 +0100 From: "Diether Caspritz" To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: RE: Schmidt-Smith Lorri, Schmidt is a very common name in Germany and also in Hessen, so without further information you are looking for the proverbial needle in the hay stack. I think his German given name must have been Heinrich and being from Hessen Cassel his confession must have been lutheran protestant. Without further information it is very unlikely to find him. Diether (Caspritz) > -----Original Message----- > From: phillylorri [mailto:phillylorri@earthlink.net] > Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 6:56 PM > To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Schmidt-Smith > > > Hi I am new to this list, I am searching HENRY SCHMIDT b. 1838 > from Hesse cASSELL HE CAME TO usa ABT 1857? He lived all his life in Phila > Pa. I am trying to find the town he came from? > Lorri ______________________________ > ATTACHMENT part 5 message/rfc822 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 15:56:27 -0500 From: Ed Maul To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Schilling's in Hessen Anyone have Schilling's in Hessen? Ed http://members.tripod.com/~Silvie/Schilling.html