Baden Emigration and Immigration

Approx. half of all people in Baden left illegally without permission granted by the administrators. Most emigrants left via the French port Le Havre where pass controls and regulations were not as stringent as they were at the German and Dutch ports. Many emigration documents before 1850 have been destroyed. Most emigration materials in the general archive are from 1850-1880 with more emigrants from the north than the south of Baden. However, the records of the Bezirksämter (administrations) of southern Baden (Brühl to the Bodensee) have not yet been thoroughly evaluated.

Emigration records contain personal reasons for emigration or economic and social circumstances. In the Freiburg Archive are housed the so called Standesbücher which were created between 1810 and 1870 by priests. They also had to supply duplicates of these records and give them to the lower courts. If the birth information of the ancestor is known, he could be traced in these books as well as his parents, brothers and sisters and his grandparents.

In the archive other information re. emigrants can be retrieved, especially if the birth place is known. 400 village histories list among other data persons who have emigrated. Some authors have extracted data between the 18th and 20th century. The information came from citizenship lists, land records, family books, taxlists and so on. In some local archives are lists of names of emigrants which were created by the mayor's office and had to be forwarded to the higher authorities for approval. Another source to retrieve names of emigrants are village genealogies. These books usually contain information beginning with the end of the Thirty Years War to the year 1900.

Note: Information regarding departure of emigrants, on what vessel under what captain from what port and the destination is not a part of German emigration records.

Lastly, the author Werner Hacker has thoroughly documented the emigration from Baden by regions. His books are available through the Family History Library at www.familysearch.org, author search: Hacker, Werner