Most likely in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt. You may be lucky and find summaries of documents online under http://www.hadis.hessen.de If you confirm me first name, last name, date and location of birth, date of emigration, etc. then I could have a quick look on HADIS online for you. May be you're lucky. Regards, Thierry   Dr. Thierry P. Dietrich D-61250 Usingen ________________________________ Von: Cindy Phipps <[email protected]> An: [email protected] Gesendet: Donnerstag, den 26. Februar 2009, 13:59:21 Uhr Betreff: Re: [HESSE] "Loritz" Darmstadt 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 ------------------------------- 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