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[The author resides in Oberbach near Wildflecken, Germany, andis the chronicler for the villages of Oberwildflecken,Wildflecken, and Oberbach.]While researching my wife's ancestors, I found references to aplace called Herrenbreitungen. I checked the telephonedirectory, zip code book and other sources, but could not findanything. One day I went to the archive in Wuerzburg and on myway out noticed hanging on the wall a map of the area in the16th century. My eyes lit upon the town I was looking for. Itis now called Breitungen in Thuringia. In the region where Ilive a number of villages have similarly disappeared. Perhapsyour ancestor came from one of them and you have wondered whyyou could not find it.

The Rhoen Highlands, with an elevation of 1,000 to 3,000 feet,are in Bavaria, Hesse, and Thuringia, Germany, approximately 80miles from Frankfurt, 60 miles north of Wuerzburg, and 20 milessoutheast of Fulda. The first settlements in this region werebuilt after 800 A. D. The area was always poor, with longwinters, a cold climate, not-very-good-farming land, and nowork. In the 18th century, many people emigrated from this areato the U.S.A. to find better living conditions.Wildflecken, a town of approximately 3,600 inhabitants, is well-known to American soldiers, civilians, and their families,because it has a huge training area.

Starting in 1936 under Hitler's regime,laborers built a village (Camp Wildflecken) anda training area with ranges. The inhabitants of seven villages and a few hamlets (Weiler) and mills had to leave their homes. The villages had only between 50 and 400 inhabitants. Most of the villages were demolished during 1938 and Werberg in 1973 by training U.S. troops. The following villages/hamlets and millsdisappeared from all maps:REUSSENDORF, first mentioned in 1579, including the farmsADAMSHOF, SARAHOF, HEINRICHSHOF, and FUCHSENMUEHLENEUGLASHUETTEN, first mentioned in 1684ALTGLASHUETTEN, including the hamlets (Weiler) BRUECKE,HARFENMUEHLE, WIESENHAUS and HAUS FRANKEN, since 1609SILBERHOF since 1696ROTHENRAIN, including DISBACHHOF, DISBACHMUEHLE and EBERTSHOF,since 1557DOERRENBERG since the 18th century WERBERG, with the hamlet of AUERSBERG, since 1260KIPPELBACH since 1542 (state of Hesse)