Hello everyone! I hope everyone is well. I am currently researching a line on my father's side that has me stumped. I can find my ancestor in the 1860 census, but no earlier. He and all of his descendants carry the spelling Truttier. In the 1860 census he states he is 40 years old and was born in Hesse. While I am aware I need to do more research on this gentleman, I did the usual familysearch.org test (to see if there was a specific locality records were coming from) and not ONE Truttier comes up in Germany (in any state). I thought maybe they just misunderstood him (the census taker that is) as the last name appears French. But in the 1880 census clearly written his place of origin is listed as Germany. I tried Trotter, Trutter, and Trottier and most hits are for Bavaria and Baden. I found a couple of Trotier's in Westfalen, though still most were in Baden and Bavaria. So I was just curious if anyone with a knowledge of German could imagine other spellings of this surname that when pronounced by a German could produce census takers adopting this spelling. I've taken German, but it's been a while, so I might not be thinking of something. Thanks for your time and consideration. LeeAnn McNabb