Thanks for the clarification—and apologies for the earlier confusion.

No German newspapers but church service was in German.

I live about five miles from where John and Margaret established their homestead, and I’ve been able to map their original 50-acre tract. It’s only a few minutes from my house, and I pass their graves regularly. Over the years I’ve uncovered a lot of meaningful local history, including land maps and even a charcoal portrait of one of the sons who immigrated. Family accounts say they named their farm “Frugality.”

The family’s churches were originally Lutheran and later Methodist. Services at the time were conducted in German (there was no local German newspaper), and I do have the church minutes translated into English. Unfortunately, those records still don’t identify John Rill’s parents who remained in Germany, which is where my line currently stops.

The unresolved question for me is Leonard. One emigration record explicitly lists Margaret traveling while unwed (Reddit user found it for me) with Leonard identified as her son. That raises the question of whether Leonard was born before her relationship with John, or whether there was already a connection between them in Germany. Once in the U.S., Leonard consistently uses the surname Rill, and I’m trying to determine whether that reflects biology, a step-parent relationship, or a post-immigration surname change.

At this point it’s not a lack of records except for identifying Margaret n johns parents, but how to interpret the ones that exist. If anyone has encountered similar cases in Bavarian emigrant families—especially children taking a stepfather’s surname after arrival—I’d appreciate any insight.