Dear Baden-Wuerttemberg List Friends, A few listers have recently posted messages in which they mention that their ancestors were "from Baden-Wuerttemberg," and usually indicate elsewhere in the message that the ancestors' history occurred prior to World War II (1939-1945). For any of you who may not yet be aware of an important distinction, the present German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has only been officially identified by that name for the past *56* years. The FIRST time these states were "combined" was after World War II (in 1945), when the similarly-named entity of "Wuerttemberg-Baden" was created. (It became "Baden-Wuerttemberg" 7 years later, in 1952.) During the era of most of our ancestors, Baden and Wuerttemberg and Hohenzollern (which together comprise modern Baden-Wuerttemberg) WERE COMPLETELY *SEPARATE* FOR CENTURIES. There literally was NO state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in existence until comparatively recent times. It is important for family researchers to get used to making the distinction. If you are looking for an ancestral town, village or city that is located somewhere in the modern state of "Baden-Wuerttemberg," keep in mind that pre-World War II era localities were EITHER in Baden, OR Wuerttemberg, OR Hohenzollern, individually. They would not have been part of "Baden-Wuerttemberg," since *IT DID NOT EXIST YET.* This information will be of importance in the successful progress of your family research, since records for separate German states were created and maintained independently of each other. For example, you won't usually find emigration records on a person from Baden among emigration records for those from Wuerttemberg. Hope this provides some clarification! For more details on the history of Baden, Wuerttemberg and Baden-Wuerttemberg, visit the helpful genealogienetz Web site at: http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/BAD-WUE/hist.html#Gesch-BW Also, for those who are unacquainted with the distinction between the *STATE* of Baden and the *TOWN* of Baden-Baden, visit my Web page on the subject at: http://home.earthlink.net/~mscarlah/ Happy Trails! :-) Warmest wishes, Carla HELLER, Los Angeles, California USA mscarlah@earthlink.net Co-Administrator of ROOTSWEB'S Baden-Wuerttemberg Mailing List _____________________________