In a message dated 3/2/2006 1:09:47 PM Mountain Standard Time, paulagoblirsch@gmail.com writes: My question is why? Why\ when many Germans were still moving east, would a family move BACK to Germany proper? I don't recall if I ever sent an answer to this query to the German-Bohemian list. In case I did not, here are some suggestions. Bavaria was not "Germany". It was a Roman Catholic kingdom at a time when many of the German states were Protestant. A lot of the migration during this period had something to do with religion. In 1654 Bohemia was mostly Roman Catholic. Try to learn what was going on in your ancestral noble domain (Herrschaft) between 1700-1720. Use Internet timelines as a first search for historical reasons for an event. Freeholders and Burghers could move about without permission from their noble landlords. Serfs could not. They would not escape conscription during mobilization for war without having to pay a pretty large sum. After looking over a timeline look for subjects to research more -- like the Turkish wars in Europe and a history of epidemic and famine. High Austrian casualties in a given battle might make men who faced conscription try to flee Austrian lands. Karen http://timelines.ws/countries/AUSTRIA.HTML 1701 Sep 7, England, Austria, and the Netherlands formed an Alliance against France. (HN, 9/7/98) 1703 Sep 30, The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffered only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. (HN, 9/30/98) 1704 Aug 13, The Battle of Blenheim, Germany, was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm." (AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6) 1705 May 5, Leopold I von Hapsburg (64), Emperor of Holy Roman Empire, died. (MC, 5/5/02) 1706 Mar 8, Vienna's Wiener Stadtbank was established. (MC, 3/8/02) 1713 Most European powers vowed to respect the 1713 royal pronouncement of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, called the Pragmatic Sanction, in which he declared that if he had no direct male heir upon his death, his Austrian domains would go to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa. (HNQ, 7/29/99) 1713 The plague in Vienna ended. The Karlskirche Church, designed by Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach was built to commemorate this event. It is considered to be Vienna's greatest Baroque church. (Hem., Dec. '95, p.69) 1717 Aug 22, The Austrian army forced the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans. (HN, 8/22/98) 1718 Jul 21, The Turkish threat to Europe was eliminated with the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz between Austria, Venice and the Ottoman Empire. (HN, 7/21/98) http://timelines.ws/countries/BOHEMIA.HTML: