I am afraid that my posting may have been taken the wrong way... "2 million left in a decade or so mostly to America" When I said about 2 million Germans left Germany over a couple of decades, I was not saying that there were 2 million left in Germany. Therefore it does tally with your statement that a million left between 1851 and 1860. John Goswell >I'd read somewhere that the peak period of leaving Germany was in the >1850s, and that between 1851-1860 more than a million people left Germany, >this being the peak decade of exodus >(maybe in: McClelland, James, 1982. A history of Germany and guide to >tracing immigrants who came to Australia from Germany). How does that >tally with "2 million left", could that also be talking about the 1850s? >