For those of you unfamiliar with Volga German history, try this web-site: http://www.webbitt.com/volga/index.htm You'll find the same surnames in Ellis Co., KS (communities of Hays, Victoria, Catherine, Munjor, Pfeifer, Walker, Liebenthal, Schoenchen to name a few) and in the St. Peter area of Graham Co. And they are usually related. Today, their unique heritage is kept alive and celebrated by such festivals as Oktoberfest in Hays and Hertzogfest in Victoria. Most of the older generation still speak with a German accent & German words riddle their vocabulary. The above mentioned site mentions the "isolationist" attitude in which the Catholic church was the center of community life, and contact with outsiders were kept to a minimum. This was true in the communities in western KS as late as the 1950's. I once knew a man who couldn't speak to his own grandmother, because she had never learned English & he didn't know German well enough to carry on a conversation. When I was in high school, a lady taught me the "trick" of spelling & pronouncing the surnames with double vowels: the long vowel you hear is the 2nd one, the 1st vowel is silent. For example Dreiling is pronounced Dry-ling, Pfeifer is Py-fer, Riedel is Ree-dle. however, there are names that have 3 vowels such as Heier (pronounced Hy-er) and Richmeier (pronounced Rich-my-er). I guess the 3rd vowel is not part of the combination.... The "KN" names such as KinderKNecht, Knoll, Knoble are pronounced with both the K and N (Kinderknecht is pronounced kinder-connect). However, Knoll friends of mine have dropped the K sound since leaving St. Peter, and simply pronounce their name Noll. Hope this helps (and didn't bore you too much) Jackie Wilson Smith >KINDERKNECHT family that settled primarily around Hays Kansas. A mention is >made of St. Peter in Graham County. The sites are at: