Stuart,

Well, a good starting point in asking us (or anyone else ) these questions would be to give us the names of who you are looking for.

I know of many Swiss, (mostly Anabaptists) who fled from religious persecution in the years after the 30 year war and went to Baden and Wurttemberg and helped repopulate those areas.? Many were skilled tradesmen as you say.

I have a large database containing over 300 surnames, and I will freely do lookups for anyone who gives me the surnames and forenames of interest.

Bruce Fosnocht

On 1/22/2020 5:42 PM, sbechman@... wrote:

Hi all,

i am hoping that someone on this list can direct me to whatever information might exist for the repopulation of towns in Baden and Württemberg after the 30 Years’ War (1618-1648)?

it is my understanding that most of the towns in these provinces lost something between 50% and 70% of their populations, and that many (most?) of them invited people from outside the provinces to come and repopulate their towns. ?But I have not been able to identify any records that would show such immigration? I have to believe that SOME records must exist, because: 1) Most towns had to vote to accept a new “citizen” into their midst (and assign them a role, such as farmer, cooper, lumberjack, etc.); and 2) The regional Lord would have wanted to ensure that any new residents were added to their tax rolls.

i have an ancestral line which I have traced back to the Rastatt District near Karlsruhe in Baden; as best as I have been able to confirm based on local parish records, my patriarchal ancestor suddenly appears in the town of Rotenfels about 1700 or so, with no other relatives living in the area prior to that point.

i know that most of the town records from that time have long ago been collected and shipped to the Karlsruhe archives, and that I probably need to contact them; but I don’t know exactly what I’m asking for?
can anyone offer me any advice on this?

thanks in advance,
Stuart