Thanks so much to all of you for responding. Every bit of that information helps a lot. How kind of you to share your research results with me. The names I am researching are Deyke (Shackenbruch) and Rinka (Gross Herzogswalde - Stradem). According to the U.S. census, a few of them arrived in the late 1800's. Beyond that I have no dates so I am starting in the most recent dates in the films and going backwards from there until I can no longer find any of their names. I will then try the neighboring villages. I'm not sure if this is the best route, but it was all I could think of. The films that I currently hold have no columns or rows. They are written in somewhat of a paragraph form and separated by the year. I found the names and now have to print up my copies and then decipher them. Bronwyn, I was told the name of the village by my cousins. After that they sent me some of their copies of records from a Kirchenbuch. I found the films from LDS and ordered them. I haven't seen any of the names you mentioned yet. If I do I will contact you immediately. Laura, unfortunately I have no stories. I have some photos that are old postcards from a website. If you would like I will send you that link. The names you mentioned are not in my family, that I know of. I think that I might have seen a Bettker(spelled like that)however in the films I am currently researching. I will be returning to my local history center next week Robert, I too lived in Germany. I was right outside of Munich in Baldham. This was back in 1989-1994, I went back and forth from the U.S. throughout all of those years. I was working in Marienplatz during this time. I really like Munich a lot. The sad thing is that during that time I was not even dreaming of genealogy. Too bad, I could have gotten much done.