Bette, The Heimatscheine came into use when a citizen moved from one town to another. It recorded when and where he was going, etc. and is similar to what are called "police registers" at the Citizen Registry Office. If moving to another town, he was to go to the town office and tell them where he was going and on what date. This was sort of a "discharge or transfer paper" from his old town to the new town. When he arrived in the new town, he was to register in the citizens' office there. This was different from the emigration or "Auswanderung" process. In the emigration papers, one gave up his rights as citizen of his state. In the "Heimatscheine", one gave up his citizenship in one town for citizenship in another and therefore made a record of his move. If you are looking for emigration information, your best bet would be to look at the Auswanderungsgesuche films. I doubt the Heimatscheine record would contain any emigration data, although the ancestor may have moved around from town to town before finally emigrating years later. Keep in mind that different names were sometimes given to the same type of record and only in studying the actual record can one determine exactly what information is contained there. Sorry I'm not familiar with Erfurt's records to say what you will find there. I do not know if they contain indexes or would be easy to use, but maybe someone else can offer more insight. Still, if these records exist, it might be worthwhile to take a look to see what they might contain for your ancestral surname, at least.... We are sometimes more familiar with police registers ("Polizeiregister") etc. which began in the 1850s and replaced the burgher books in an effort to record movements of the population. The emigration records were to keep track of those who intended to permanently leave the state. Karen B. Whitmer ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.