Dear David & Baden-Wuerttemberg List Friends, The problem that David and many other family seekers have is that not ALL emigration (or for that matter, OTHER kinds of) records pertinent to our ancestors are necessarily available *online.* It would be wonderful for all of us if they were, but some are, some are not. Keep in mind that not all such original records even still exist, and the publication of those that do exist is often regulated by different European civil or church administrations. A lot depends on who holds and has jurisdiction/authority over any existing records, and what their practices are regarding record release or publication. In addition, it's only been fairly recently (perhaps in the last 10 years or so) that records of genealogical interest have *started* being made public online---no one can tell you that such records have comprehensively been digitized or indexed or whatever and published somewhere online. You will often find that you need to turn your research efforts to things like microfilms of various kinds of records created by such entities as the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library, or other media. It sounds like David is getting understandably frustrated with seeking an appropriate path to follow to trace his ancestor's emigration. If any of you are having no luck with researching *emigration* records, perhaps you should consider other records on either side of the Atlantic that might help you find additional clues about your ancestor, such as US naturalization (citizenship) records, US census records from the time of the ancestor's settlement and later, American church or civil records for the ancestor (such as those for marriage or death or burial, and the births or baptisms of US-born children of the ancestor), and that sort of thing. These are not all *guaranteed* to include the information you seek (which for David is the name of the particular PART of Sigmaringen-Hohenzollern where the ancestor originated or lived at one time), but they sometimes can provide additional clues. It's also a little difficult to know what to suggest in the ways of research paths to each individual family seeker without knowing what they have already worked with. For more specific assistance, perhaps you can let us know what kinds of research you have already done besides working with ships' lists. I might add that US *church* records for events in the life of the ancestor once in the United States (as *opposed to* those issued by the states or counties) are often very helpful. These can be tracked down through places like diocesan or other offices in or near the place the ancestor settled (you can Google that online and see where they are, and then write or look online to make inquiries about the records they have that are pertinent.) I spent years trying to find the name of my great-grandmother's place of origin in Poland, and the information I found on her Pennsylvania CIVIL death certificate (issued by Allegheny County) was either totally wrong or non-existent; however, when I wrote to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh (PA) (which has long since gotten a Web site), I discovered that there was a *church* burial record for her, which gave me not only the name of HER birth village in Poland, but that of her husband (my great-grandfather.) I was absolutely astonished! It's certainly worth checking into. For guidance on how to proceed with that kind of research, Google a search term like "research American church records genealogy" or similar. In your research efforts into passenger arrival/departure records or naturalization, you may want to check out the great help available at the following Web site, which is Arnie Lang's IMMIGRATION AND SHIPS PASSENGER LISTS RESEARCH GUIDE (step-by-step, free help on how to proceed with these kinds of research): http://home.att.net/~arnielang/shipgide.html Hope this helps! Carla HELLER, Los Angeles, California USA mscarlah@earthlink.net List Co-Administrator, RootsWeb's Baden-Wuerttemberg Mailing List ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of David Stroebel Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2008 8:53 PM To: baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com Subject: [BW] Please help- Emigration from SigmaringenSi I am ready to give up. Ship lists from the Westphalia say my ggrandparents tell us their last residence was Sigmaringen, GE, but cannot find their names on Germany's side. What site do I search if Sigmaringen was in the state of hohenzollern, germany in 1883? Thank you David Who ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message