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Note the English version says he was asked to pay the tax.  The German version from which the English version was abstracted doesn't say that.

I recently did an analysis of an abstract done about 1920 of court records from Augusta County VA, (which used to be huge, before it was carved up).  As useful as it was, it also had notable errors, when compared to the original.

Best,
George.

In pulling the thread on the original question about Johan Martin Herre, I have found that the alleged report that his with and children were named at immigration was in error, but I am still convinced (as are two "experts") that the PA/MD Herre matches the Zillhausen Herre.

1) The initial report I saw was on ancestry.com and very short.
2) This was based on an article in an American Journal which was longer, but vague on sources, except that it was based on a German Article.
3) I was able to get the German article from Heidelberg Uni.  On translating it, I concluded that the American journal article was not a very faithful translation in some terms.  The German article was much more literal and gave the archive file where to original material is still available.
4) I have just requested the original European file from 1765-1770 (now in the Stuttgart archives) and am looking forward to figuring out what it actually says, IF I can read the script.

But the bottom line is that it was the European document, based on a return trip by Martin Herre, that named the wife and at least enumerated the children.  The German author/analyst noted that the sailing date from the deposition exactly matched the immigration of Martin Herre in 1749, so they were "certainly" the same person.  In that context, certainly means almost certainly, or must have been, but not ARE the same person.

I started this discussion and also took the course.  I think I expected less from it than the prior commenter.  It helped me understand how to find out about towns/villages throughout the continent via GOV.  It helped me better understand German-speaking naming conventions which was quite helpful.  The instructor helped assess some of my research and transcribe and translate some German script.  (I use an on-line translator for textualized German.)  Overall, I found it worth the money.  But, I am looking at ancestors that immigrated to America.

I do agree with the other commenter that the material was a bit thin, and that there was limited discussion among the students.  Many students didn't participate at all until the last week, then only did the first exercise.

Overall, it was worth it for me, but could have offered much more.

Thanks for that.  Still thinking.