In a message dated 2/27/2006 6:44:05 PM Mountain Standard Time, KarenHob@aol.com writes: circumstances that might have caused them to emigrate. (I am wondering if the living conditions experienced by my ancestors might have been comparable to the conditions experienced by the Poles in Prussian Silesia.) Circumstances that could cause emigration from just about anywhere in the Austrian lands: 1. Avoiding military service, expecially if a war was looming. See historic timelines for when wars occurred. 2. Being sought by the police or creditors. 3. Being from a large family with no hope of inheriting enough property to make a good living & no other prospects. 4. Other economic circumstances Multiple crop failures. Widespread depression Family facing loss of land -- bankruptcy, deep in debt to moneylenders. Loss of a job as a factory worker / journeyman tradesman. Crowded conditions at home - successful home farm no longer able to sustain growing family, someone has to go. 5. Looking for adventure. 6. Looking for better opportunity: Industrial workers recruiters from the US promising a job and enough money to bring the rest of the family within a year or two, then buy land. Advertisements of free land in the US -- large plots europeans could not hope to ever own. 7. Cheap fares, boat captains willing to accept service for passage -- sell a service contract for some years of work to pay after arrival in the US -- make it easy to leave. 8. Escaping epidemic while still healthy. 9. Looking for healthier climate. 10. No family left, no point in staying. 11. Other.