Greg, Six possible answers... Wendelin will know and will answer your question. Another member of this List may have run into the same question for their emigrant ancestor from Waltersweier. The original permit is on file at the Town Hall of Waltersweier or at a neighboring town known only to a researcher familiar with the area and the record-keeping methods of the area. The original permit was forwarded to a particular Archive, perhaps Karlsruhe or Freiburg and would be available for a cost....again possibly something known only to a very few German researchers. The Permit you want and hundreds of other permits were sold as scrap paper to a local Paper Mill a hundred or so years ago. Over the centuries paper has had its cycles of scarcity and in many areas recycled paper was not and is not a new Go-Green activity. (Or the Town needed the money from the sale of their old papers.) Your ancestor left the Grand Duchy without legal authority and no such Permit exists. May we hope that your answer will be from one of the first four thoughts. I have seen such documents from areas north of the Ortenau, both in Baden and in other former Germanic countries. In most cases, they are very complete in details on the individual, his family, his finances and the Town Council willingness to allow the family to emigrate. djweber djwdjw@ix.netcom.com ------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Hilton" <grhilton@msn.com> To: <deu-bad-ortenau@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 9:55 PM Subject: [Ortenau] (no subject) Where might I find records of the requests for emigration from the town of Waltersweier near Offenburg that an individual would have needed to get permission from Germany to move to North America. Bernard Vetter of Waltersweier left Baden around 1815-1816. I understand that these records are often full of information on the individual as all debts would have had to have been settled before he/she could have left. Has anyone seen such records? Greg Hilton