I have been reading comments about emigration with interest and for the first time checked out some of my ancestors on the Brandenburg Emigration Index. My grandmother's parents, C.F.W. ZILLLMAN (b. 1847) and Auguste Wilhelmine SCHAEFER (b. 1845) arrived in Queensland 16/07/1870 on the "Humboldt." Auguste's sister Marie Wilhelmine Ernestine Schaefer (b. 1859) m. August ARNDT arrived on 18/11/1884 on the "Merkara." The Schaefer parents, JOHANN JULIUS SCHAEFER (b. 1818) and Charlotte SCHMIDT (b. 1821 Schmoelln) came with them, Charlotte dying just four months after her arrival, and Johann Julius in 1907. There were details of all these emigrations in the Brandenburg register, but quite surprisingly, the whole Schaefer family - parents, these two daughters, plus two sons, are shown as going to, or applying to go to, Africa in 1858, and then Russia in 1862. It seems unlikely that they would actually have gone, and then returned to their place of origin (Eikstedt). Thus it must have been easier to get permission to go than to actually go. It does sound as though people in general were desperate to get away. Has anyone else found ancestors applying to go to different countries at different times like this? Lois Cameron.