Karen: Have you considered that some of the Germans anglicized their names, i.e., my Stein family became Stone. My Dutch Kool family (which means 'cabbage') became Cole (thus 'cole slaw' -- betcha always wondered where that came from! :o) In the Stone/Stein case, it's very interesting -- even up through the mid-1800s, all of the public records are in the name of "Stone". All of the church records -- baptisms, marriages, attendance, etc. -- are "Stein", and it is definitely the same family. Thus, if you are finding land records, census records, etc. (i.e., public records) for Sharp, but no church baptismal, marriage, etc. records, I would recommend changing the parameters of the search to include "Scharf" and "Shaub", etc. Just another conjecture. Priscilla