In earlier times the citizen of a country "belonged" to the souveraign. They didn't have a passport or the permission to leave the country. Thus they had two options, either breaching law by trying to illegally emigrate with the risk of getting caught and being jailed and the risk that staying relatives were punished instead. Alternatively you had to apply for emigration. Usually this included that you needed to pay a certain sum, so you kind of "baught" yourself out. These applications and their responses (they were not always granted) usually are still available in archives and may help you identify the origin of your ancestors. Cheers, Thierry   ________________________________ Von: Cindy Phipps <[email protected]> An: [email protected] Gesendet: Mittwoch, den 25. Februar 2009, 17:01:36 Uhr Betreff: Re: [HESSE] "Loritz" Darmstadt Hello, list! Nancy's response mentioned  an "application to emigrate".  can anyone give me some more information about these applications?  Thank you in advance, Cindy Phipps ----- Original Message ----- From: "pascalfl" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:56 PM Subject: Re: [HESSE] "Loritz" Darmstadt Thanks Joel, I just got  a message back from a contact in Germany.  He found Peter Anton Schachner's application to emigrate dated in 1839 and his residence is reported as "Lorsch" which is a small town near Bensheim.  I am trying to connect those Schachner's in St. Louis with my Schachner line.  It's not that common of a name with that spelling.  Maybe the enumerator wrote it the way it sounded which, in German, could have sounded much different. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Nancy > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Thierry, would these papers be archived in the town/village of emigration, or in a larger, centrally located city? thanks! Cindy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thierry Dietrich" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 12:22 PM Subject: Re: [HESSE] "Loritz" Darmstadt In earlier times the citizen of a country "belonged" to the souveraign. They didn't have a passport or the permission to leave the country. Thus they had two options, either breaching law by trying to illegally emigrate with the risk of getting caught and being jailed and the risk that staying relatives were punished instead. Alternatively you had to apply for emigration. Usually this included that you needed to pay a certain sum, so you kind of "baught" yourself out. These applications and their responses (they were not always granted) usually are still available in archives and may help you identify the origin of your ancestors. Cheers, Thierry