Kortenkamp, Daniel wrote: > Catherine [KISCH] OETH named her first child (a son) "William". > Maria/Mary [KISH] SAUTER named her first son "William". Perhaps (if > Catherine & Mary were sisters) they named their first sons after their > deceased father. It was the tradition in the Trier area to name children after their baptismal sponsors. Although grandparents were often sponsors for their grandchildren, that couldn't have happened in this instance if the grandfather were already deceased. The indexes to dozens of Familinbücher are online here: http://www.genealogienetz.de/vereine/wgff/trier/ Why don't you check them out to see if you can find any clues? It seems to me that the birth name of Antoinette is a big clue. It was a very unusual name in the Trier area. Serial emigration was very common, so another way to approach this is to find the hometowns of others who settled in their area of Iowa. Good luck! Kathy