Mr. Honeck,
I too, have had trouble finding a family in Germany. Have you exhausted all your options stateside? Death certificates, obituaries, church films?
I had luck finding a town of origin and maiden name for my great great grandmother by checking her death certificate in Cook County Illinois. I also had luck finding towns of birth in church records for a local German church that they attended. Her parents joined her a couple of years after her marriage and her fathers town was listed in his death record. The film was at a local library. Have you tried alternate spellings?
The Illinois databases also give dates of deaths, marriages, etc.
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html
I wouldn't have found them at all without the assistance of lists like this one.
Michelle Z.
Frederick Ackmann & Wilhelmine Beerberg (Segelhorst & Fischbeck Germany) in Bartlett & Elgin, Illinois