Email From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 7/24/2001

      Considering the skill and experience of the numerous Mechling
researchers, I doubt that my visit to Rheinfels, Bavaria which is today
part of Baden-Wurtenburg will add to any existing knowledge regarding
Theobald and Jacob Mechling's origins, but at least I will get a sense
of what the area is like. I may already have been through that part of
Germany on prior visits without being aware it had any relevance to me.
Ditto with the prior areas in Swtzerland and the Palatinate that I have
discussed. I have not visited MECHLINBURG  or STREILITZ, in the province
of MECHLENBURG in northeastern Germany, the alternative venues proposed
for their origins, so I may add these towns to my itinerary en route to
the Aden roots in  East Frisia or OSFRIESLAND as it is spelled and
pronounced in German after I have visited HIRSTEIN, Germany. 

      The father of Anna Elisabeth LAUER Mechling( 1710 ? place- ?
buried alongside her husband, Theobald, in the old graveyard in
Dillingersville, Pennsylvania) was John Peter Lauer(1680 Germany- 1754
Pennsylvania) who married 1703 before his wife(name and demographics
undiscovered by family researchers) and he emigrated from Germany  and
setttled in the Upper Hanover Township, Philadelphia County,
Pennsylvania, now called Montgomery County. He died between January 7
and March 26, 1754 and left a will. His fourth child and second daughter
likely met Theobald while Theobald was working in Philadelphia as a
tanner(his likely old world occupation). John Peter Lauer's name appears
on an early list of members at New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church in
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. A respected family researcher has
suggested that there is evidence supporting the proposition that the
family lived at the present day location of 6587 Baumholder in HIRSTEIN,
GERMANY before they left Germany. Can you imagine the look I'm going to
get when I mention this notion to my guide?

      John Peter Lauer, my seventh great grandfather, is considered a
progenitor by the Mechling Family Association based upon reasonable
genealogical proof. The location of his burial site is unknown.