Lieber Andrea,
Thank you very much. I did not know that any miehes were from Söhlde.
Four years ago, I traveled to Germany to visit ancestral towns and cousins whom I had located by research. My main preparation was an intensive effort to locate the native town of my great-grandmother. (I knew all the others, except one who had emigrated early.) My effort was not successful. A month after I returned I found that she was from Söhlde! And I had driven only about 5 km from Söhlde.
Her older sister, also from Söhlde, had married Carl Georg Miehe in St. Louis, after they had traveled to America together.
Not only that, on my trip in 1998 I visited the home of Herr Machtens in Harsum, to talk with with his wife, who is a cousin of mine. This year Norbert Bauerschaeper has shown me that Herr Machtens is also my cousin! Moreover, I knew a lady named Machens, from Machens, Missouri, USA. Further, some years ago, I was paging thru Gatzemeier's book (which I had borrowed to look for Fehlig kin) and found the word 'Missouri'; that got my attention and I copied the chapter. The chapter was on the Machens family. Norbert shows that Machtens and Machens are variants of the same name. I had no idea that the chapter was about relatives of mine!
I have a cousin in California whose husband is an IMMEL.
Bob