My acestors - Arnold Jansen and his family - reportedly orginiated from the Dusseldorf area. As I understand it, this is is Western Prussia. They came to the US around 1850. I am looking for any information on Arnold or his family (his father's name is Mathias). Also is there a good reference for history of that region in the early and mid 1800s? I am interested in learning political / social reasons for his immigration to the US.

Duesseldorf is in the Ruhr area of Western Germany, today's Land Nordrhein-Westfalen (North-Rhine-Westphalia Province) miles from West Prussia, an historical region which is nowadays in Poland (most of it anyway. It is a very large city - any good map should show it. Probably better to post on the modern Germany board.