Sallie: Phil's correct. It wasn't until 1871 that a whole group of individual states were united into the German Empire. Before that, they were each independently ruled and truly separate countries. To call them "Germany" would be similar to calling the 13 colonies the "United States" prior to 1776--although with the colonies there was a single government (generally English), but there was no single ruling body in Germany before 1871. Kirsten -----Original Message----- From: Sallie Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 12:37 PM To: Phil Stevens ; roots@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] Niederlosheim Losheim am See, Merzig-Wadern, Saarland,Germany , a ? This is so odd. I don't know really what you are discussing..... You say Germany didn't exist until 1871. Well my grgrandfather was born Aug 1844 in Baden, Hessen Nassau, Germany, so where does this leave him!!! Sallie Lou Morris Nelson San Benito TX via Logansport/Deacon IN ----- Original Message ----- From: "Phil Stevens" <bstevens27@frontier.com> To: <roots@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 1:19 PM Subject: [ROOTS-L] Niederlosheim Losheim am See, Merzig-Wadern, Saarland,Germany , a ? > Hello Rooters , gotta question for you today , I believe that the use > of > " Germany " in the subect place is in error , As Ggermany did not exist > until 1871 , So to include it in a database would be dumb ?? , Phil ===== If you would prefer digest mode to mail mode, drop a note to roots-admin@rootsweb.com and ask for the digest... ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message