Hello Alan, hello all ! I'll try to answer your question just after, but just note that Biel is not considered by its inhabitants to be close to the french border... The border may not be far away when looked on a map but you must know that you must cross 3 or 4 mountain chains to be in France (mountain chains are quite parrallel to the border). On an other hand, Biel is on the linguistic border between 'Schwitzertütsch' (1) and 'French'. The Y key is seen in France as a swiss mark, though it's called 'greek i' :-))) . In french it's rather a rare letter, except as last letter in a village name. Family names in France with a 'y' are likely of swiss origin. Anyway the 'Hochdeutsch' (2) Weiller is modified in dialectal forms like 'Elsaessi' (3) in Willer forms. So I would say that Weiller and Wyller are the same. Guillaume -Mulhouse - Alsace -France (1) Schwitzertütsch = name of the german-based dialect spoken in Switerland (2) Hochdeutsch = name of the official german language, spoken only in Nordrhein-Westfallen, normal basis for written dialectal forms of german. (3) Elsaessi = name of the alsacian german-base dialect. ----- Message d'origine ----- De : alanrr@juno.com À : SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com Envoyé : lundi 15 novembre 1999 18:58 Objet : [SWITZ] Spelling 'y' or 'ei' In reference to my Post of surname DA"TTWYLER, I meant if the letter 'Y' (y) is French, so can it could is the letter 'EI" (ei) in German? I think my GGGrandfather came from Biel, Canton Bern near the border with France. Alan Rossing, Monterey, CA, USA ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== Resource Site http://www.rootsweb.com/~chewgw