Hello List, Several people were kind enough to give me suggestions when I said that I wanted to make a genealogy stop in the Rhineland when we travelled home to England from Switzerland. We're back home again and I feel I must let you all know what we found. We were primarily interested in PULVERs and specifically Johann Wendel PULVER who came to America in 1709. The information in Hank Z. Jones' book on the Palatines places the baptism of Anna Catharina BUSCH, Johann Wendel's wife, in Wiedt and recorded in the Rengsdorf Churchbook. We therefore rang ahead to Neuwied to ask about available resources. We were given an appointment to meet someone in the Town Hall. When we arrived, we were given red carpet treatment, a bundle of tourist information booklets, and someone to guide us to the Archives building which was in a monastery on the edge of the little town. (They've even put our visit incl. a photograph on their website!). We were shown the local phone book where the BUSCH is still very much in evidence as is SCHAFFER, JAGER and KLUM but we were told that PULVER was not a local name. At the Archives Department, we were given a deal of background information such as the fact that Louis XIV had not been active in that particular area after the Thirty Years' War, that there was religious tolerance, that inheritance laws meant that land had to be divided equally amongst all the children be they male or female and not primogenitor as is the norm in England and northern Germany, and that if anyone wanted to leave the land they had first to petition the local ruler and pay for their release. The Parish records that we wanted to see are located in Boppard, another small town on the Rhine, but further south and on the opposite bank. Off we went to the Archives department of the Evangelische Kirsche im Rheinland. Once again we were met with great kindness and could deal in the most part in English which was a relief. We were given microfiches of the Parish records of the area and were able to find the actual entry of Anna Catharina BUSCH's baptism - reading the spidery Latin script was however a nightmare. There were also a huge variety of books, and in one we found the only PULVER we ever found, one Jacob PULVER who was asking for the release of himself and his wife to go away from the village of Merzalben. The lady in charge was extremely helpful and kept offering yet another book she thought might be of interest. They have a signed copy of Hank Z. Jones' book of which they are very proud - the inscription indicated that he had spent a deal of time looking at the same records. Because Johan Wendel PULVER was listed as Catholic on the London Lists, we were then directed to the Catholic Archives in Limbourg and Trier. We went first to Limbourg which was nearer and spent the night in this very quaint town clustered round its multi-coloured Cathedral. It was interesting to see half-timbered houses dating from before the exodus of the Palatines. The director of the Archives was very welcoming although they were normally closed on Tuesdays, but the lady in the actual room had other ideas and with great lack of diplomacy we were told to go away! We later discovered that the records held in Limbourg do not cover around Neuwied though usually the Rhine is the dividing line between the areas of records held. We moved hurriedly on to Trier - another charming town with a very old Cathedral. Once again helpful people with a wealth of reference books. We were allowed three books each every half hour and there was a small payment. We were very surprised to be given the actual records, some rather frail, dating from the 17th Century while nobody checked to see we were using pencils rather than ball points in case of accidents. I daresay the records will fall apart one day as they must be handled by so many people not wearing gloves. Despite looking in many Family Books and Parish Records for neighbouring Catholic areas, we found not one single PULVER, which in itself was interesting because it left us with the new mystery of where on earth the family originally came from. I have been advised by my Neuwied Archives contact that I must now write to Speyer which I have done and await their reply, but they only function on Tuesday to Thursday so I must be patient. It was wonderful visiting the area despite the lack of new discoveries and we will probably go back again. Penny Pulver