Dear Al

Why not do some res? earch before you get there Check out family names in the phone book via the internet. My brother-in-law recently found an old letter from Finland when sorting through papers of his recently deceased father. He and my sister began by looking in the phone directory of a town mentioned in the letter. While some were dead ends, by following various leads they were united with 5 cousins within 10 months. They had a great family reunion! Many public records are available on the internet now, or by paying a fee, you can have the records copied and faxed or mailed to you. My family emigrated from Switzerland in the 1800's, but there has always been someone in the extended family who has kept in touch, so I was able to go to my "ancestral" village and see the house my great-great grandfather built in 1775. It is still in the family and I was able to visit with relatives there. The experience was indescribable.
Good luck in your search. E-mail direct if you want further lists of resources.

Let me be a little picky here. You're looking for living relatives, not ancestors, right? Do you know the names of the ancestor(s) who emigrated? If you do, you might try advertising in the local papers before you go (e.g., "descendants of _____ _____ who emigrated to America in 1747 want to meet German cousins"). If not, it's generally difficult to trace European immigrants before ca. 1820 (the year that the US began requiring passenger manifests for incoming ships), but you might try writing to the state library and state archives where your ancestor settled. I've done it and was lucky enough to find a large, unpublished family history written by a living cousin. Another approach would be to search for German genalogical organizations on the Web - - some have Web pages - - and see if you can make connections that way.

I have several similar family lines that came from Palatine roots. For sure you want to get as much as you can ahead of time. An absolute must is Anne Kunsleman Burgert's book "18th Century Emmigrants". It connects ships records with church records on either side of the Atlantic.

Once you know where they were from, write to the local church. The churches are often extraodrinarily helpful and will often know people in the town or in the are that you may be related to.