I want to understand the politcal and social climate in Gottenheim from 1870-1890. I am interested in learning why a single mother with a 6-month old boy infant would renounce her German citizenship and sail to Boston to start a new life in America. Further, I would like to know why the father would not be listed on the birth certificate and why the child, a Catholic, would not be baptized? I know that many of these questions are of a personal nature applicable to the mother, but to some degree the social climate influences these decisions. That would certainly not be the outcome today.