I think that John Blankenbaker hit it on the head when he reported in his Germanna Note # 847: "Pure and simple, they wanted a better life for themselves and for their children. Gary Zimmerman and Johni Cerny found a quote in the Gemmingen death register which tells it all: (Their translation) "12 July 1717. The following listed parents, together with their children, expect to move away from here, wanting to take ship to Pennsylvania, and there in the hardship of the wilderness better their piece of bread than they could here. Not just from here, however, but many people are leaving other villages as well, with the same intention." If one had to choose just one word, I would say the word is "economic". We can embellish this with more, but this is the essence. By their hard work, they were hoping to create a better life with more good things, if not for themselves, at least for their children. For many of our Germanna people, the struggles began before the trip was hardly underway, but they persevered. The First Colony was deserted by their sponsor, and the Second Colony was shanghaied by the ship's Captain. Later people may have had their own misfortunes; we just are not aware of them. " (End of John's Note.) "Better their piece of bread!" That says it all. Sarge At 9/6/2011 08:43 AM Tuesday, Lisa deGruyter wrote: *********START OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT********* (snipped) I think it is fair to say that most people came for the vast quantities of land available here, and for many of the Protestant sects, the idea (snipped) **********END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT*********** My Germanna Database at Rootsweb: [1]http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=germanna My Germanna Website at Rootsweb: [2]http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/index.html References 1. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=germanna 2. http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/index.html