G'day everyone, I thought I would share a recent success concerning my German ancestry with the list. My Great Grandfather Asmus Kunde was born in the parish of Zarpen near Lübeck in 1852. He went to sea and later settled in England. The LDS don't have the registers for Zarpen on microfilm but they do have the ones for Hamberge, the neighbouring parish to the south. From this, I picked up Asmus's mother's second marriage and also her burial. Both entries recorded that her eldest son, Hans Kunde (b: 1846), was living in Lübeck. The Lübeck Archives informed that they had the Probate Records for Hans Kunde and his wife. I was able to purchase a copy of the Testament which informed me that Hans had 11 children, 7 of whom survived to adulthood. It also gave me the names, dates of birth and current address of the surviving seven children, along with husbands names of the four daughters. I am now slowly working my way through the city directories and the parish registers on microfilm following up on this. There are only 16 people in the Lübeck 'phone book with the Kunde surname. Just over a month ago, I sent each of the them a brief letter in German with a descendency chart. I have now had several replies including from two who are my 3rd cousins! (My poor German is now getting a serious workout!). Better still they have a sister living in Bad Segeberg where the old Zarpen registers are in the Lutheran archive! I hope this encourages others to keep going with their research. Regards David Armstrong Maylands, Western Australia