To add to the many varied ways our subscribers have described Their ancestors arrived in the USA... our interloper Swiss Fullweilers settled in Gimmeldigen in 1717 ( just north of Speyer), from there they moved south into Frankweiler and Spirkelbach.... As the story goes our Family was tired of the many wars and the impreesion of men into the armies..... Sooo in the middle of the night they left Spirkelbach dressed as women and headed to Amsterdam... I always wondered why men would dress as women and the travel with women and children. I felt they would stick out like sore thumbs.... In 'Germans to America' I found Anna Maria (Jüng) Fulweiler 1846 traveling with Jacob (my GGfather) and his brother Micheal and Elisabeth thier younger sister. No men ! At this moment I realized that the men came over first and sent for the rest of their Families later, after getting established..(in Cincinnati) As of yet I have not found where the men came in at and what year, tho the family story states NY or Boston about 1842... My thoughts are what did the women have to do to leave Germany LEGALLY since the men slipped out avoiding notification.... To see the Pfalz today, its an Emerald Green Picture Book Region and its hard to picture it any other way.... Ann (Fulweiler = Jüng = Weissenberger = Mühlhaüsen = Kost = Pfaffman) Frankweiler = Spirkelbach = Gimmeldigen