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/4016.1 Message Board Post: Pat, yes, you are on the right board. The villages you mention were all located in the Grafschaft Schaumburg (in English: County of Schaumburg), which belonged to what was until 1866 Electoral Hesse (in German: Kurhessen), the capital of which was the city of Kassel. From its capital city, Electoral Hesse (Kurhessen) was often referred to simply as Hesse-Kassel (or to use the older spelling, Hesse-Cassel). The major city in the County of Schaumburg (Grafschaft Schaumburg) was Rinteln. Electoral Hesse (Kurhessen), or Hesse-Cassel, was one of many German states, including the neighboring Duchy of Nassau (capital: Wiesbaden), the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt (capital: city of Darmstadt), and the Kingdom of Hanover (capital: city of Hanover), that sided with Austria against Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War, or Seven Weeks War, of 1866. Austria and her allies were defeated. The Kingdom of Prussia (in German: Preussen; capital: Berlin) thereupon annexed Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and the city of Frankfurt and combined the three territories into what was to then remain until 1945 the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau (in German: Hessen-Nassau). At that same time, Prussia also annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, which thereupon became what was to then remain until 1945 the Prussian province of Hanover (in German: Hannover). In 1932, the Grafschaft Schaumburg (County of Schaumburg) was transferred from the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau to the Prussian province of Hanover. Following World War II and the break-up of the huge state of Prussia, the Prussian province of Hanover, the state of Oldenburg, and the two very small states of Brunswick (in German: Braunschweig) and Schaumburg-Lippe combined to form today's state of Lower Saxony (in German: Niedersachsen), with the city of Hanover as its capital. The villages you mention are thus located in the southern part of today's state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). Here is the link to a map of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau as it was prior to 1932. If you look to the north, you will see, in the same purplish color as the main body of Hesse-Nassau, about 65 miles north of the main body of Hesse-Nassau (that is, separated from the main body of Hesse-Nassau by about 65 miles), the very small Grafschaft Schaumburg with the city of Rinteln. It was bordered by the Prussian province of Hanover and the two very small states of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe. You can see why the Prussian State Government decided in 1932 that it would make more sense for the Grafschaft Schaumburg to be part of the province of Hanover, which it directly bordered anyway, than for it to remain part of the province of Hesse-Nassau, from which it was separated by about 65 miles. http://www.gonschior.de/weimar/Preussen/Hessen-Nassau/uebersichtskarte.html Robert