Hello Ms. Schiller, I paused on your message, trying to remember the Mary Lish connection. I think she helped me at one point. The reason I write is to get some advice on research in Germany. Let me explain: My grandmother was Rosa Wiedmann, born in Pforzheim, Baden March 30, 1878. Her father, Gustav, left Germany early in 1881 arriving in New York, March 12, 1881, and her mother, two half-sisters, and four full-siblings arrived August 19, 1881. The ship's register shows that were from Pforzheim (which is lightly crossed out and Germany put in its place). Gustav had 2, possibly 3, marriages. The ones we know for sure about were to sisters, Marie and Karoline Sötterling, also rendered (Zutterling, Zeutterling). We also have an Easter card with a note in German written to my grandmother, Rose, from Pforzheim, from a Richard Pluto, who addresses her as a cousin and is obviously picking up news from the previous year. As part of a more general trip to Europe, my wife and I are planning on visiting Pzorzheim for a few days early this May. We will have with us a German speaker, a cousin of my wife's. We are experienced family historians, but none of us has worked on German genealogy. I know there will be some records (census I think) there, and I have heard that emmigrant files are in Karlsruhe. I suspect other things are Suttgart, but I don't know that we can fit it in our trip. I have the basic information of immigration records (ship's passenger lists), birth dates, and whatever was on the death registrations. Gustav was a button-maker in both Pfrozheim and Newark, according to his family. He told the immigration officials, he was a goldsmith, and perhaps he made gold buttons. The family settled in Newark, NJ. and Karoline had 5 more children there. (She was much younger than Gustav.) Gustav died in 1898 at age 67 or 68. Karoline lived on only a few more years, dying of some kind of lung disease. There are, of course, 100s of descendants from the large family, but none, so far as I know, has ever visited Pfozheim. What would be the first things to do when we get to Pforzheim? Thank you so much. Wilson Brown >>> <RoseSchiller@aol.com> 04/12/07 3:44 PM >>> Hello Mary, you sent me an e-mail privately about the MERZ, Fidel family. I answered you a day after with some familysheets in the attachment. I don't know if you have received my e-mail, maybe you are using a Spamfighter program. I do not want to bother you. I only would like to know if you got my e-mail. Thanks so much Rose in Germany ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NJESSEX-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message