Hi Mike Yes, you are right --- "Zimmer" means "room [of a house, etc.]". "Zimmermann" does mean carpenter, so I suppose the exact meaning is "person who constructs rooms". Through very quick use of the delete key, I erased your message of a few days ago in which you mentioned the exact title of your gate-keeper ancestor in Minden. I remember, though, that the title said exactly WHICH gate he was the keeper of. Minden presumably had more than one gate, and he was the keeper of the ___-Tor. (Michelstor or Steintor or whatever). If you ever ran across a map of the old walled city, you could find where that particular gate is. Maybe you could send a letter to "Stadtarchiv, Minden, Germany" and see if they have any information. They would almost certainly understand English. I see there are two Mindens in Germany, one in the so-called Sauerland, and the other in Westfalen. (Must be pretty close to each other.) The one in the Sauerland seems to be pretty small; almost certainly would not have an Archiv, and is most probably not a Stadt. Its zipcode is 54310. Minden i. Westfalen IS a Stadt and must also have an Archiv, so the address would probably work. (Whether they answer or not is another question.) They have several zipcodes there; I would try this address: Stadtarchiv D-32423 Minden i. Westfalen Germany. Worth a try, maybe? Best wishes, Alan Leighton