Starting with your last question, just google the term German-Americans and you'll have a laundry list of sites devoted to the topic of why they came over. I think the basic answer is the opportunity for individual success. Most were probably unskilled laborers who faced extremely low paying jobs with no hope of progressing beyond that station in life. The military issue would arise a little later when Prussia went on the war path and began to gobble up other German states to fulfill its dream of empire. As for led., it's. short for ledig, a German term for a single person. The site you refer to is run by the government of Baden-Wurttemberg. I don't think they have released their records to the Mormons or others to make available to other users. I think the originals are all in the archives in that state. You may have access to them in the archive itself, but that would of course involve a trip to Germany. The site tells you somewhere that the online records are just a small part of the total collection. The other thing to keep in mind is that not all of the people emigrating from the state bothered to apply for permission. My family is an example of both. My great grandfather traveling as a 20 year old single man just left without permission. The woman who became his wife about 3 years later came with her family of 13. The family applied for and received permission to emigrate. Hope this is of some assistance. Eric Schaal -----Original Message----- From: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of lsmontoya@aol.com Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 3:29 PM To: baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com Subject: [BW] Emigration Records & Reasons My ancestor, Leonhard Braun,?emigrated from Wuerttemberg in 1853 at the age of 17. I obtained a copy of his application to emigrate which I found on the Wuerttemberg Emigration Index.? Today I located his emigration record on the website posted a few days ago Landesarchiv Baden-Wuerttemberg http://www.auswanderer-bw.de/auswanderer/index.php?sprache=en The record shows an Emigrant Identification number and has some basic details about him. Does anyone that is familiar with this website know if?this is?an index of records that can be ordered that might have more information? Or possibly is this the same record that was included in the Wuerttemberg Emigration Index? His application to emigrate was filed March 21, 1853, which was 3 days before his 17th birthday.?I can't help but wonder if there was significance to that fact.? Does anyone know if there was a mandatory military service requirement at that time that he might have been trying to avoid?? Also, on the website it lists his marital status as "led." What might that stand for? Lastly, can anyone recommend some websites on emigration from Wuerttemberg that might discuss the reasons why folks left for America around this timeframe, or what life might have been like for them? Linda ------------------------------- 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