Audrey: 1. As suggested you need to go to a FHC and look up Rittberg in Meyers/Orts. It will give you information on the town/village and how it relates to other larger towns nearby. You need to know about the history and geography of the area. You need to do your background research in order to know where to find things. 2. If you are not finding Rittbeg on a map it's probably too small to include. That means it probably doesn't have its own church and is probably served by the nearest parish. Also as suggested, you are not going to do your genealogy online. Mainly the churches were the keepers of the records and you will probably have to utilize the services of your nearest FHC to obtain and search microfilm of those records. If there are no microfilm records available you will probably have to utilize the services of the appropriate German archive or try writing to the appropriate parish church. Archive/church research by mail can be very expensive. 3. Go to www.Mapquest.com which will show the location of the Rittberg that you think is the right one. You can even print it off. 4. When you search in Germany/Prussia the records will be in the German language and in German script. You will find a good guide to searching in Germany including word lists on the FHC site. It is downloadable. Best Luck, Audrey. Sheila K.