Barbara, Not exactly an after-thought as I tried to do some digging in old notes. Where exactly the notes originated, I do not remember, maybe an old history text-book, maybe a web site, just maybe. And I still have no strong ideas for a pre-1866 emigration reason but thinking of the Franco-German War as perhaps a example of the times, I found that for Field Artillery alone, Wuerttemberg supplied four batteries with 900 men and Baden supplied 9 batteries with 900 men to that war. Beyond Field Artillery, there would have been Cavalry and soldiers afoot. Men from Wuerttemberg would be utilized in Germanic warfare as he grew older and he probably realized that. As the French and Germanic troubles had been brewing for some years with the French wanting all territory to the Rhine as its boundary from the German states perhaps two wars in your ancestor's youth and the probably-expected war were enough to persuade him to emigrate. As it were the wanted border turned out to only a secondary cause of the Franco-German war although a bit of conniving by Germans Bismarck and von Moltke and the French Olliivier helped it along even after the Prince Leopold renounced his interest in the Spanish throne. Your ancestor left and left war worries behind him. djweber [email protected]