Snipped . . .My Solter family came to Madison County from Prussia in 1856. Snipped . . .Is there a particular area in Germany which is heavily represented in Madison County? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Phyllis, I've decided to take a stab at these questions, but I may stir up more disagreement than concensus. 1) Remember that Prussia in 1871 was a much larger place than in 1856, than in 1826. There is no significance in my choice of dates; I'm just saying there was a lot of "annexation" going on. You probably already knew that. 2) This is over-generalized, BUT . . . The Granite City area of Mad Co has a lot of Eastern European german-speakers, from places like Hungary, western Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and eastern areas of present-day Germany. Sort of the "Iron Curtain" countries. BUT, there are always exceptions . . . There are also a good number of Italians in Collinsville, and a good number of Northwestern Germans in Belleville (St. Clair Co). 3) So far, all of my ancestors from Eastern Mad Co (around Highland, Saline/Grantfork and into Bond and Clinton Counties) have come from Switzerland, Baden-Wuerttemberg (SW Germany), or Lorraine, with one from Luxembourg. You can imagine on a map of Europe how that's NOT really a very big area. But there are always exceptions . . . All that being said, I guarantee that EVERY State in Germany has at least some representation, probably every county. I would not narrow MY search based on any of this . . . My Grandma would say "Machts nichts", or "This amounts to nothing." Let the comments begin? Larry Wernle [email protected]