Baden Emigration and Immigration

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Approximately 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, abbreviated BA) 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 regarding 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.

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

Emigration from Konstanz A-Z (1633-1699) name index A-Z (1837) emigration documents A-W (1837-1951) are available through the Family History Library network (International Film 1204485)

Emigration of prisoners from Baden

Poverty was in the mind of administrator the cause for social disgrace. Government officials spent a lot of money to ship their poor to America. Such measures were looked upon as more economical. But not only did they sent the poor, prisoners were sent as well. In 1850 fifty people were selected and financed to find a new home in America.

The author Friedrich R. Wollmershäuser has listed the unwanted and published their names, their place of residence/origin and when they were shipped out according to gender, male and females. In 1850/51/52 people were released from Pforzheim police custody. In 1853/54 people came from 4 districts of Baden. There are no further documents for the following years, however, prisoners were still released for emigration to America. In 1860/62/64 people were released from Bruchsal prison and the workhouse in Freiburg.

The lists were published in Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung, 3. Jahrgang, Heft 1 (1999). The periodical can be accessed through FamilySearch, Family History Library, call number 943 B2as.

Websites

 * Database of emigrants leaving Southwest Germany primarily during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Auswanderung aus Südwestdeutschland. Database. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg (http://www.auswanderer-bw.de).


 * Emigrant Database as entered by researchers. The entries are queries.

Baden's Black Forest (Schwarzwald) area - Blackforest Emigrant Database site


 * Emigration from Baden's Black Forest (Schwarzwald)

Auswanderung aus dem Bereich des östlichen Rands des mittleren Schwarzwaldes


 * To United States and Canada

Auswanderung nach Nordamerika (Emigration to North America)