I am sorry for the mixup; I should not have relied on my memory of names during a busy time this week! The Fred I was referring to is Fred Krebs, not Fred Held, who also has posted to this maillist. Fred Krebs is the person in Germany, not far from Kirchheimbolanden. I hope this helps. I have sent Ray the link to his website. My apologies, Pat On Apr 11, 2007, at 10:04 AM, Fred H Held wrote: Ray, Please do no bestow honors and titles that do not apply. I'm not sure who Pat Blackwell is referring to, because I am not that person and I know no other Fred Held on the Pfalz mail list. > winery owned by the family of Fred Held along the "wine trail" > southeast of Kibo, as Kirchheimbolanden is called by an native who > lives in the midwest U.S. Held is/was a university professor > interested in history who belongs to this Pfalz email list The only thing that fits is I am on the Pfalz mail list and I am interested in genealogy. There are HELDs in Missouri that own a winery (the famous Stonehill Winery in Herman, MO), but they are not related to my HELD Family, that I can find. I am always more than willing to help. Since you seem to know the home village of your families, have you visited your local LDS Family History Center to rent the microfilms for the villages? Those records in the archives are, for the most part, the same data microfilmed by the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City and available for rent at your local LDS FHC. You do not need to travel there to view the records. Besides, many archives require you hire a local researcher to do the same research you can do for yourself at your local LDS FHC. As far as accommodations and local researchers, one place to look is the German Genealogy webpage (http://www.genealogienetz.de/ genealogy.html), or more specifically the Pfalz area portion (http:// www.genealogienetz.de/reg/RHE-PFA/rhein-p.html). Many of the villages you mention will have their own webpage and will list local accommodations, including B&Bs (zimmers and doppel-zimmers) and small family hotels, that I have found to be quite nice and very accommodating in my travels there. Many villages will also have their own local museum and genealogy society. Use Google to find them. BTW, correct spelling is important now - it is Kirchheimbolanden not Keichheimbolanden.