Hi Karen ! I can't answer specifically for you but if you go to this page - http://iagenweb.org/chickasaw/heritageindex.htm - there are four links there of German reference which might provide some help or leads. Good luck on your search. Sincerely, Mike Peterson IAGenWeb Chickasaw ----- Original Message ----- From: "Karen Conroy" <karen.conroy@virgin.net> To: <IOWA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 11:30 AM Subject: German names > I have been trying to help my uncle find out about his father's parents. He only knows his father was in a Protestant orphanage in San Francisco in 1900 on the census and was born in Butte, Montana in 1889. His father always said that he was a 6th or 7th generation George W. Gross. We just got his father's social security application and there it says his mother was Hattie Stoeltel. Both his father's parents were born in Germany. That is all we know so I have been trying to look at immigration records. I cannot find any Stoeltel so they could have married in Germany before coming to America. My query is whether the names Gross and Stoeltel come from any particular part of Germany and if anyone has ever heard of the name Stoeltel before. I can't find it anywhere. We have no idea when they immigrated except obviously they were in Butte in 1889 when his father was born. They must have died and somehow his father ended up in the orphanage in San Francisco. No record of ! > any siblings. Any ideas anyone on where I go next? > > Thanks, > > Karen > > ______________________________