This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/ZVC.2ACE/3980.1 Message Board Post: Frances, there was no such place as Lower Saxony (in German: Niedersachsen) back in the time period you are referring to. Today's German state of Lower Saxony was a post-World War II creation, in existence not even 60 years yet! Following World War II and the break-up of the huge state of Prussia (in German: Preussen; capital: Berlin), the Prussian province of Hanover (capital: city of Hanover), the state of Oldenburg (capital: city of Oldenburg), and the two very small states of Brunswick (in German: Braunschweig; capital: city of Brunswick/Braunschweig), and Schaumburg-Lippe (capital: Bückeburg) combined to form today's German state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), with the city of Hanover as its capital. Vital records are not and never have been kept at either the national, state, or provincial level in Germany. In Germany, vital records are kept strictly at the local level. You will thus not be able to proceed before doing further research in the U.S. and finding out exactly which city, town, or village Heinrich Friedrich Engelke was born in. Was Heinrich Friedrich Engelke born in the Prussian province of Hanover, in the state of Oldenburg, in the state of Brunswick (Braunschweig), or in the state of Schaumburg-Lippe? If you know in which of the four components of the new state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) he was born in, that will narrow things down at least a little bit. Robert