Thanks for the friendly greetings, my guess is that your ancestors came from Blatzheim and/or Kerpen both located in the Niederrhein region which is not a political area but a geographical. Blatzheim is now-a-days a suburb of the municipality Kerpen, ZIP code 50171 and Kerpen itsself belongs to the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. So what ? Blatzheim and Kerpen are located halfway Koeln- Dueren. Regards Ernst Dierich. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Wells" <doredad@foothills.net> To: <PFALZ-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 4:46 PM Subject: [PFALZ] Niedderrhein > Greetings to all. I am a new member of the group and I have need help(surprise!). I have recently organized a family heritage tour of southwestern Germany for the Auxier family of East Kentucky. For generations we thought we were French(a long story), but have discovered that our name was originally "Axer" and our ancestors Christian and Johann Michael Axer lived in Armsheim in Pfalz-Hessen in the early 1700's. However, "Axer" is not a common name in that area and I was told that the family came to that town after the Thirty Years War from "Neiderrhein." A check of the available church records reveals that the "Axer" family was concentrated around the tons of Kerpen and Blatzheim. However, from my limited knowledge, Blatzheim and Kerpen were never in the Niedderrhein? Right? Help! > > Sincerely, > John B. Wells III > Paintsville, Kentucky > 4th great grandson of Johann Michael Axer(now spelled "Auxier") > > > ==== PFALZ Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/PFALZ.html > to unsubscribe >