Those are some great points Tom.
I am well aware that people emigrated from Germany to America for very
good reasons. My only interest in the "permission to emigrate" issue is that
I have searched the emigration databases etc. from Germany to try to find
what part of my ancestor family traveled to the U.S. They are not listed
there. I am sure they were poor since they owned no land. We have not been
able to find the family on ship lists here. The family lived in the
Hannover region. There are records of secret immigration in Minden in
Westphalia that could be helpful. I was just asking if it could be likely
that they got the permission from another province (or even another country)
than the one where they lived. This is all part of my search--it has
nothing to do with concern that they did something illegal. I just would
like to know how many members of the family came to the U.S.
Barbara