In a message dated 01/30/2003 7:41:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, vogeling@freenet.de writes: > GERKEN - patronymical version of Gereke, the Low German diminuative form of > Gerhard (Germanic roots "ger" = spear and "harti"= hard) > > The name if relatively common (with about 3000 Gerken and Gerkens entries > in > the German telephone directory) and appear pedominately in the Region > around > Bremen and Hamburg. > > Regards, > > Ingolf Vogel > Thank you so much for the above information. I don't really know where in Germany my GERKEN is from but my ggrandfather had Bremen listed as his place of birth on his death cert. Wasn't sure if that was because he departed from Bremen or not. Once again, thanks. Robin