Hello, There is not only the town in East-Belgium. There are dozens of towns in Germany named Rodt (or that have the suffixes -rath, -rieth, -roth, -rodt, -rode), near Trier there is Rodt, today belonging to Zemmer, a village ca 15 Kilometers north of Trier or Rodt/Saar, today Taben-Rodt. The name has nothing to do with the color red. In the first document about Rodt near Trier (dating from 1036) it was called Rodre. That was a regular name for villages founded during the period of woodlands clearing (since the 9th ct.) in the middle ages (roden = root out, make arable). Thats the meaning of all Rodts/Roths or -raths or -rieths. There are lots of other villages in our region (and in Germany: Wuelfrath/Rhineland, Benrath, Herzogenrath, Heiligenrath, Roesrath, Luetzerath, Overrath and so on) with that meaning, for example Gusterath, Bonerath, Holzerath, Hupperath. Near Koblenz, in the Verbandsgemeinde Katzenellnbogen, there is a village "Roth" that has the same history (http://www.hamm-sieg.de/gemeinden/roth/geschichtliches.htm) as Rodt/Trier Before we had the first rules for german ortography in 1902, it was common to write as you spoke. And between Rod, Roth (the "th" is not spoken, it is pronounced as "t") and Rodt there is nearly no difference in pronounciation. Especially "t" and "d" were interchangeable. Regards, Ernst Mettlach ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 1:00 AM Subject: [TRIER-ROOTS-L] Rodt/Roth > Does anyone know whether the surnames Rodt and Roth could be interchangeable > in Catholic records? The records are from the early 1800s. Jane/CO > > > ==== TRIER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/TRIER-ROOTS.html > to unsubscribe >