Thanks to all who responded, especially Michael, this is exactly what I was looking for!!!! Sherry ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In a message dated 5/22/99 2:41:22 PM Central Daylight Time, mbshafer@telerama.lm.com writes: << Hi Sherry, Diggin way back about 30 years to my high school German I would say it means: Frank STAHLE and Louise CHRIST were properly married October 20, 1855 by minister William A. Good in Reading, Berks Co. in Pennsylvania in North America. The German verb "trauen" means to marry and in German the "ge" prefix and "t" ending (getraut) make it past tense as in the English "married." The word you have in question is most likely wurden (umlauted u). Wurde (umauted U) literally means "dignity" thus the phrase "wurden getraut" meaning married with dignity or in English phrasing "properly married." As I mentioned its been a while but this should be at least very close to the actual meaning. Best Regards, Michael Shafer Schäffer Wood Works >>