Maureen, (love the name) Your re-sent letter sounded so familiar, I went and looked for it where I had saved it for future reference in my German Research Tips mailbox, and here it is..July 11, 2007 For some reason, shortly before the real letter came, I also received a blank letter from you with only some AOL blurb in it. Ann in Iowa From: Spaghettitree@aol.com Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:42:54 EDT To: pfalz@rootsweb.com [blank letter] This is the info from the complete letter I've forwarded below. From: Spaghettitree@aol.com Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:01:37 EDT To: pfalz@rootsweb.com [actual letter] At 10:01 PM 7/11/2007, Spaghettitree@aol.com wrote: >In order to find the village Georg Leonhard Walter came from you will need to >scour every U.S. record you can get your hands on - there is no central >repository in Germany so it would be very difficult to hunt around >all over there. >It would help if you include his wife's name, where they settled, dates of >birth, marriage, death in your inquiry. > >If you are searching only on line, that's only one avenue and not >all-inclusive. Have you checked out newspaper obits and other >articles in English and >German language papers? Before radio and telephones there were an amazing >number of tiny articles about anyone and everyone - that was the >best means of >communication. Even if you don't read German Gothic you can >recognize the name >and dates. Cemetery and sexton and tombstone? Mortuary records? Memory >cards? Naturalization? Probate? Siblings? Memberships like IOOF, >Sons of Herman, >Woodmen of America, Turnvereins and many more? Most especially, the church >records here, plus application for marriage license; military service. Also >remember those who lived nearby, often came from the same >place. What did he >do for a living - are there records of that place? Local historical society >information? Schools? Do you have any knowledge of the dialect he >spoke? Any >recipes handed down with German names? Sauerkraut is not the same >everywhere. > Family traditions which sometimes indicate locality? Have you looked at >Cyndislist.com? > >Maureen Schoenky > > >************************************** > Get a sneak peak of >the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour > >********* >Information for list members: >http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/PFALZ.html >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >PFALZ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >quotes in the subject and the body of the message