Check EVERY possible spelling!!!!!

Here we are again- I've been working on one of my Civil War era German immigrant lines for a decade, with little success in finding a village of origin for the family. We all know we need a solid lead before we start slogging through dozens of German parish microfilms looking for our families! Plenty of documentation here in the U.S., although they drop off the map in the 1950's, but we all know we need more than "near Hamburg" to work with.

I've checked the nturalization index for Grant County, Wisconsin once before with no success, but decided to see if I could find some collateral family that married into the Bushhausen line, as we know families tended to migrate in groups and oftentimes settled here with someone they knew. Bingo on the index - the first portion of the surname was dropped off- my Great-Great Grandfather was listed as "Von Housen", so now I've ordered up the petitions and declarations of intent to see if more information might be gleaned from that documentation, a mere year after his arrival in Wisconsin!

So once again, check EVERY possible spelling- however long the long-shot may seem to be!!!!