Tony, Just remember that whatever I type, whatever I proof read will still have typos by the time it reaches you and the List. So, if some of my messages seem as though you need to read between the lines and they still don't make sense, ask again. But there are many others MUCH more intelligent than I on this List and I am certain that others will add extra and more exact information for any questions to the List. For a short history of the Baden area, I would always suggest the individual town pages of the Companion pages as being the most exact for those towns. The Korean-located, English-language, German-web site of World History at KMLA < http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/germany/xbaden.html > is good. That site also has a few pages on the Vorderösterreich starting at < http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/germany/vo16481740.html >. It is possible that KMLA includes pages on other of the Baden-located political activities. There are other historical pages such as the Black Forest pages and Mike Pantel's pages but I don't know if any of those or others would be as exact as you might need for the Bistum Straßburg details. Your time period of 1831 is unique in a sense. Of course, many others emigrated in 1831 also but if your time period were in the later 1830s and early 1840s, I could identify bad weather and poor harvests. If your time period were in the late 1840s and the early 1850s, I could identify the Revolutionary attempt and the high costs to the towns charged against those attempts. But 1831? Maybe they merely emigrated because they thought it was time to emigrate. For a good history of "Baden", not just the Bistum area, the copyrighted in 1910 Catholic New Advent encyclopedia is on-line (I think it really dates to 1905). It is old but then we are involved with history and the early 1900s is new to us. The main URL is < http://www.newadvent.org/ > and article on Baden is at < http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02194a.htm >. This history should help for your 1803 to 1850 time period. There are several other older but excellent encyclopedias and histories on-line; the Britannica 1911, in particular, which can be found through < google.com > searches. djweber [email protected]