This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: RIES Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/ZVC.2ACE/1867.1866 Message Board Post: Check the holdings of the LDS library catalog (www.familysearch.org) for church and civil records from Merseburg. You can bring them into your local LDS FHC. Merseburg is in today's Sachsen-Anhalt. During the lifetime of your Josef Ries, I believe Merseburg was within the borders of the Prussian province of Saxony, so he was actually Prussian, rather than German.