Berhard sounds unusual. Could it be Bernard? By Holland, I assume you mean the country and not the province. The Rhine river exits Europe by way of the Netherlands. Antje is as far as I know not my relative, but rather one from someone else to whom I was replying. However, I do have a Peters ancestor in the USA and I'm debating whether she is from Dutch or German background. Of course she probably has lots of both in her, since many ties exist between the two countries. My ancestor is Mary Peters, b. abt. 1818 in Westmoreland Co., PA., as I've been told. This person is said by some to have been Pennsylvania Dutch, or in other words German. However, their premise was based upon third-hand information that they were members of a German speaking Methodist church. "They" was not clearly defined and many Dutch did go to Pennsylvania. Their languages are very similar and would be no major difficulty for a Dutch person to learn German. In fact, Dutch are required to learn 3 foreign languages, of which German is usually one. My feeling is that perhaps the chances of her being Dutch are not as high as being German, but still that possibility leaves my current evidence inconclusive. The surname Peters could very well be spread throughout the germanic areas of Europe, including Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Flanders (Belgium). However, given the high number of Dutch links I've come across in my ancestry, I can't yet rule out the possibility that my Mary Peters was Dutch. Ken -----Original Message----- From: JPeters93@aol.com <JPeters93@aol.com> To: PETERS-L@rootsweb.com <PETERS-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 1:06 AM Subject: Re: [PETERS] Meester/Peters >Ken, >I saw your request for information on your PETERS family. >My PETERS ancestors came from the Rees area. Rees is located 10 km from >Holland, just a couple km north of the Rhine River and 20 km northwest of >Wesel. My grgrandfather, Johan Henrich Peters, was the son of Berhard, whose >father and grandfather also had the same name. I do not have Antje Peters in >my family. I do have other ancestors from this area with Dutch names, >Jerry Peters > > > > > >==== PETERS Mailing List ==== >New subscribers are encourage to send your >PETERS line to our list at anytime you'd like. >Address message to: Peters-L@rootsweb.com > >============================== >The RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: >Tens of millions of individuals... and counting. >http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ >