Published Passenger Lists:
A Review of German Immigrants
and
Germans to America, Volumes 1-9 (1850-1855)

by

Michael P. Palmer

German Immigrants; Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York, ed. Gary Zimmerman and Marion P. Wolfert (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985-1993). Vol. 1 (1985): 1847-1854; vol. 2 (1986): 1855-1862; vol. 3 (1988): 1863-1867; vol. 4 (1993): 1868-1871.

Germans to America; Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports, ed. Ira A. Glazier and P. William Filby (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1988ff.). A list of volumes published is maintained by Jim Eggert.

Introduction.

Ship passenger lists can be classified either as departure lists or arrival lists. Departure lists were compiled at the ports of embarkation; surviving lists are deposited in the archives of the country in which the port lies, and will be the subject of a separate article. It is important to note for the present, however, that for all the ports from which Germans emigrated to America in the 19th century, only the departure lists for Hamburg survive in any significant numbers. Considerably fewer than half the German emigrants to America left through Hamburg, however, and consequently the arrival lists, compiled at the American ports of disembarkation, take on primary importance, since it is in these lists rather than in the European departure lists, that the majority of researchers will find the record of their ancestor's immigration to America.

Customs Passenger Lists.

The various records resulting from the act of 1819 and now known as the Customs Passenger Lists extend from 1820 to the 1890's (to 1902 for the port of New Orleans), and document the arrival of almost 20 million people. Many of the people listed are of course neither immigrants nor alien passengers. In addition, the lists do not include those immigrants who arrived overland from Canada and Mexico. Nevertheless, the Customs Passenger Lists remain the primary record of the arrival of the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States in the 19th century; among 19th-century American records they are surpassed in size, continuity, and uniformity only by those of the federal census.

All Customs Passenger Lists--originals, copies, and abstracts--were eventually deposited with the National Archives in Washington, DC, where they were incorporated into Record Group 36, and arranged by port, date, and ship. In order to preserve the information these records contain, and to make it more readily available to researchers, the National Archives microfilmed the original lists, carefully substituting copies and abstracts for missing or illegible originals. At the same time, the National Archives microfilmed indexes to the lists, most of which had been compiled by the Works Projects Administration (WPA) in the 1930's. In 1977, the lists for the five major ports of entry--Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia--were transferred to the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research, at Temple University, in Philadelphia.

Although copies of the microfilms prepared by the National Archives are easily accessible through a number of sources, locating the name of a particular immigrant on a ship list remains a formidable challenge. There exist indexes to many of these records, including the following for the five major ports, compiled by the WPA: Baltimore, 1820-1897; Boston, 1848-1891; New Orleans, 1853-1899; New York, 1820-1846; and Philadelphia, 1800-1906. However, these indexes can prove difficult to use, since they are arranged in different ways--most commonly either alphabetically by surname or by soundex--, are subject to copying errors, and are to some extent incomplete. The lack of an index to the New York lists for the years following 1846 is particularly serious for researchers of German ancestry, since not only was New York the major port of immigration into the United States, but the years 1846 and 1847 also mark the beginning of the first great wave of German immigration, a wave that crested with the arrival of over 215,000 immigrants in 1854 [note 3]. The absence of an index to the New Orleans lists for the years prior to 1853 is almost equally serious for researchers of German ancestry, since in the period prior to the Civil War many Germans destined for the Midwest entered the United States through New Orleans [note 4].

The WPA indexers were most probably forced to abandon the indexing of the New York lists at the end of 1846 by the sheer volume of the records for the following years. However, the development of computers since the end of World War II, and in particular the refinement of the personal computer in the last five years, has enabled present-day indexers to venture bravely into the sorts of records that would have sent even the most intrepid WPA indexer to a sanatorium. In the past five years, two major works have appeared that utilize computer technology to make available information on German immigrants from the Customs Passenger Lists.

German Immigrants.

Each volume consists of a single alphabetical listing, containing between approximately 11,820 and 34,320 names (the total number of names listed in all four volumes is about 99,440). Each entry represents a single individual or family group, and is tied to a "Table of References" at the front of the volume by a reference number consisting of the last two digits of the year of arrival (e.g., "52" for a ship arriving in 1852) followed by the number assigned the passenger list for that year by the National Archives in its Microfilm Publication Series M237. Each Table of References is arranged chronologically, and gives for each passenger list abstracted the reference number as described above, the name of the ship, the date of the passenger manifest, and the number of the microfilm reel (of National Archives Microfilm Publication Series M237) on which the list appears. This enables the researcher easily to locate the microfilm copy of the "original" record [note 6]. The second, third, and fourth volumes contain an expanded introduction, in which Zimmerman and Wolfert explain some of the difficulties they encountered in abstracting the passenger lists. Among the points they emphasize, the following two are of particular importance:

1.

the original lists contain obvious misspellings of both personal and place names, a consequence of the fact that the information on these lists was supplied to the compiler verbally by the passengers; and

2.

certain German letters can easily be mistaken for others.

Zimmerman and Wolfert's work should be considered an index rather than a record publication, since it lists only an immigrant's name, age, sex, place of origin, and ship: the passenger manifests themselves include additional information, most frequently occupation and intended place of destination. In fact, the only serious weakness of Zimmerman and Wolfert's work is the fact that the alphabetical arrangement of each volume destroys the original order of each ship list. As indicated in the opening paragraph of this article, the order of names on a ship passenger manifest can be important for a researcher attempting to determine the maiden name of a woman traveling with her future husband, to track groups of relatives with different surnames, or to identify bands of unrelated neighbors traveling together. In defence of Zimmerman and Wolfert, however, it should be noted that it is far more expensive to publish ship passenger lists in their entirety than to publish alphabetical abstracts of them. To publish full transcripts of the ship lists for 1847-1854 abstracted in the first volume of German Immigrants would require a volume of 400 to 500 pages of text; indeed, the index alone would almost certainly be the length (175 pages) of the entire published volume of abstracts. The costs of publishing a volume of this size can be quite high, and the decision of the compilers and their publisher to publish the smaller volumes, at a price ($22-$25 per volume) within the budgets of most private researchers, public libraries, and the majority of genealogical societies, is quite understandable.

Germans to America.

Although the time period it covers is considerably narrower than that covered by Zimmerman and Wolfert's German Immigrants--1850-1855 (5 years), as apposed to 1847-1867 (20 years)--, GTA is a much more ambitious work, which reproduces, in modified form but in original passenger order, every "original" passenger manifest now housed at the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research and containing a minimum of 80 percent German surnames. Unlike German Immigrants, which covers only ships arriving from Bremen, GTA includes ships arriving from all foreign ports. In addition, since inclusion is determined primarily by surname rather than by nationality, GTA contains not only German nationals (viz., citizens of the various states that later formed the German Empire) but also ethnic Germans from Switzerland, France, and the Austrian Empire. Passenger manifests are arranged chronologically, and then alphabetically by the name of the vessel, without regard to the port of arrival. Each entry contains the full name of the passenger, his/her age, sex, and occupation (most often in code), a two-letter code for his/her country of origin, a three-letter/number code for his/her village of origin, and a two- or three-letter code for his/her stated destination. Each volume contains lists of occupation, province/country of origin, village of origin, and destination codes. Volume 1 contains a foreword by Mr. Filby and a six-page introduction by Professor Glazier, including a short "Historical Background of German Migration in the Nineteenth Century," which relies heavily on the pioneering work of Peter Marschalck [note 7]. Both the foreword and the introduction are reprinted verbatim in each of the eight succeeding volumes. An extensive alphabetical index at the back of each volume enables the researcher to search for a specific immigrant by name rather than by port of entry or date of arrival.

The cost of publishing these ship lists in passenger order is not cheap: the price of each volume is $75, well beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest private researchers, public libraries, and genealogical societies. However, to those accustomed to purchasing academic record publications, $75 for a book of over 700 pages is something of a bargain, and the publishers are to be commended for keeping the price so comparatively reasonable.

Coverage.

1. German Immigrants.

2. Germans to America.

The annual reports of the Secretary of State indicate that approximately 724,930 German nationals (as distinct from ethnic Germans from Switzerland, France, or the Austrian Empire) entered in the United States between 1850 and 1855. The nine volumes of GTA contain transcripts of 2,714 ship lists, representing approximately 629,283 names, for the period 1850-1855. Of these 2,714 lists, three are duplicates, and 16 contain no German surnames [note 13]; taking these corrections into account, GTA contains transcripts of the passenger manifests of 2,695 ships, representing approximately 628,586 names.

To make available well over half a million names is a monumental undertaking, and GTA is assured a place as an indispensable work for anyone researching German immigration to the United States between the years 1850 and 1855. Nevertheless, when compared with the official returns of 725,002 names, the 628,586 names printed in GTA represent a shortfall of some 96,344 people, or about 13.29 percent. Table 1 compares the number of German immigrants as reported annually by the Secretary of State to the number of names published in GTA [note 14].

In fact, the shortfall is greater than these figures suggest, since not all the people listed in GTA are German nationals: the published passenger manifests for ships arriving in 1852 from Havre indicate some 5,640 Swiss immigrants [note 15], virtually all of them ethnic Germans, as well as a number "Austrians", the majority of whom appear to be ethnic Germans from Bohemia. Of equal importance is the fact that many of the people listed in GTA are not ethnic Germans. The published passenger manifests for ships arriving in 1852 from Havre list some 6,445 French immigrants, less than one third of whom appear to be ethnic Germans, and even some Italians. The published passenger manifests for ships arriving in 1852 from Liverpool and London list an additional 7,995 non-German immigrants, the overwhelming majority of them Irish.

It would be impractical without access to the original computer database even to attempt to determine precisely the number of non-German surnames and non-German nationals listed in GTA. However, extensive daily use of the series over several months suggests that this number comprises at least 10 percent of the total, and that a minimum of 62,850 names should therefore be added to the shortfall. In short, a "rough and ready" estimate is that GTA contains the names of approximately 75 percent of the German nationals arriving by passenger ship at American ports between 1850 and 1855. A shortfall of 25 percent of a base population of 725,000 is quite substantial, especially to a genealogist, who is concerned with individuals--indeed, with only one, particular individual. A look at some of the causes of this shortfall is consequently not out of place.

Table 2 lists the number of German immigrants arriving in the United States between 1 January 1850 and 31 December 1855, arranged by quarter and by port of entry. These figures are derived from the quarterly reports of the district customs collectors and should be considered approximate rather than precise: they represent the minimum number of German immigrants arriving at United States ports of entry and, in addition, do not include those arriving overland from Canada and Mexico. In addition, the customs collector for New Orleans failed to file a report with the Secretary of State for the fourth quarter of 1852, and the figure given (12,300) is an estimate based on a survey of the ships arriving at that port between 1 October and 31 December 1852. It is important to note that the report for a particular quarter may not include records of all ships arriving in that quarter: particularly in busy ports, such as New York and New Orleans, there was a great chance that records were not filed in absolute chronological order, with the result that records for ships arriving at the very beginning of a quarter might be included in the report for the preceding quarter, while records for ships arriving at the very end of a quarter might find their way into the report for the following quarter. (As an aside, it is important to recognize that the date on the ship passenger manifest is not properly the date of arrival but the date the list was signed and presented to the customs collector. Although these dates often coincided, they just as often did not [note 16]. For example, the customs collector at the port of New York did not work on Sundays, and consequently, although the various New York newspapers list ships arriving every day of the week, no New York passenger manifest for the period 1850-1855 bears a Sunday date.) Also worth noting is the importance of Galveston as a port of entry for German immigrants. Although the customs collector there failed to file quarterly reports for the third quarter of 1850, the first three quarters of 1851, and the third quarter of 1853, the reports for the remaining quarters for the years 1850 through 1855 indicate that the number of German immigrants entering through Galveston during that period was greater than the total number entering through both Boston and Philadelphia.

Table 3 gives the numbers of ship passenger manifests published in GTA for the period 1850-1855, also arranged by quarter and port of entry. Although this table assigns each list to a particular quarter by its date, it is important to note, as indicated above, that statistics for passengers on ships whose manifests date from the very beginning of a quarter may be counted in Table 2 among the statistics for the preceding quarter, while statistics for passengers on ships whose manifests date from the very end of a quarter may be counted in Table 2 among the statistics for the following quarter.

Lacunae in Germans to America, 1: Records of Miscellaneous Ports.

Lacunae in Germans to America, 2: Selection Criteria.

1. Ethnic Affiliation.

The primary drawback of using ethnic affiliation, as determined by the subjective analysis of surname forms, as a selection criterion is the danger that a manifest may qualify or fail to qualify for publication in GTA as the result of a relatively small number of what are essentially nothing more than well-educated guesses by the editors. The additional requirement that a manifest contain at least 80 percent German surnames in order to qualify for publication in GTA only increases the danger that an "incorrect" ethnic classification may prevent the publication of the names of as many as several hundred immigrating German nationals, about whose ethnic affiliation there is no question.

It is important to note that distinguishing between ethnic Germans and German nationals should not preclude the publication of the passenger manifest of any ship arriving in the United States from Bremen or Hamburg between 1850 and 1855. The overwhelming majority of emigrants through both these ports prior to 1855 was comprised of citizens of the various German states. Aliens represented only 1.12% of all emigrants through Bremen and Hamburg in 1851 (the first year for which the records distinguish between citizens and aliens). This representation had grown to 9.88% of all emigrants by 1855, but as most of these aliens were in fact ethnic Germans it is most unlikely that the passenger manifest of any ship sailing from either Bremen or Hamburg contains more than a handful of "non-German" surnames [note 22].

However, Bremen and Hamburg were not the only ports through which Germans emigrated; indeed, until the mid-1850's they were not even the most important. As Table 4 indicates, until 1852 the majority of German nationals emigrated through "foreign" rather than German ports [note 23]. (These figures, like American government figures, should be considered approximate rather than absolute: those for "Non-German Ports" refer to emigration through continental ports only, and do not include the substantial number of indirect emigrations through the British ports of Liverpool and London, as discussed below.)

Prior to the 1850's, the major port of embarkation for German emigrants to the United States--both nationals and ethnic--was the French port of Havre; it was not until 1852 that Bremen first superseded Havre as the major port for the emigration of German nationals, and even after that date Havre and, to a lesser extent, the Belgian port of Antwerp remained the ports of choice for ethnic Germans from Switzerland [note 24].

Unlike the passengers on ships sailing from Bremen and Hamburg, most of whom were German nationals, those on ships sailing from Havre andAntwerp between 1850 and 1855 were a much more heterogeneous group, including not only German nationals, but also ethnic Germans from Switzerland and the Austrian Empire (primarily Bohemia), and ethnic French and Germans from France. As a result, many ships arriving at American ports from Havre did not carry sufficient numbers of German nationals to meet the 80-percent requirement for publication in GTA; of these, however, many did carry sufficient additional numbers of ethnic Germans from Switzerland and France to meet this requirement. As Table 5 indicates, of 11 ships arriving at New Orleans from Havre in the fourth quarter (1 October-31 December) of 1852 and published in GTA, only one, the Robert Kelly, carried over 80 percent German nationals; of the remaining 10 ships, nine carried sufficient numbers of ethnic Germans from Switzerland and France to meet the requirement. One ship, the Eastern Queen, fails to meet the requirement even when the number of ethnic Germans is added to the number of German nationals; nevertheless, it is published in GTA.

2. 80-Percent Requirement.

Many ships arriving in the United States by 1850 carried considerable numbers of passengers: of the 54 ships arriving at New Orleans from Europe in the fourth quarter of 1852, and for which passenger statistics are readily available either in GTA (41 ships) or in the pages of the Daily Picayune (the remaining 13 ships [note 25],) seven carried over 400 passengers (the William Nelson, which arrived on 22 December 1852, carried 559 passengers), 14 carried between 300 and 400 passengers, and 23 carried between 200 and 300 passengers. In order for a ship carrying 400 passengers to qualify for publication in GTA, at least 320 of these passengers must in some way be German; for a ship carrying 300 passengers to qualify, at least 240 of them must be German. In other words, if only 300 passengers on a ship carrying a total of 400 were German, according to the 80-percent requirement the passenger manifest of this ship would be excluded from publication in GTA, with a consequent loss of 300 German surnames.

It has not been possible to ascertain how many ship manifests have been excluded from publication because the combined totals of German nationals and ethnic Germans among their passengers fail to satisfy the 80-percent requirement. However, in the fourth quarter of 1852, in addition to the 11 ships listed above, another eight ships from Havre arrived at New Orleans for which no passenger manifests are published in GTA [note 26]. The reviewer was not able to check the National Archives Microfilm Publications of the New Orleans ship passenger arrival lists ("originals" in M259; quarterly abstracts in M272) to determine the percentages of German nationals and ethnic Germans among the passengers on each of these ships, and it is possible that the manifests do not appear in GTA for another reason (see below). Nevertheless, it is clear that the use of a subjective selection criterion coupled to an unrealistically high percentage requirement has the potential to disqualify many passenger manifests, containing substantial numbers of German nationals, from publication in GTA.

The disadvantage of the 80-percent requirement is most evident in the case of those considerable numbers of Germans who sailed for the United States from the British ports of Liverpool and London. The transportation of Germans to America by way of England began as a result of America's position as the primary source of raw materials for British industry. Indeed, by the early decades of the 19th century, the United States exported to Great Britain twice as much raw material as she received back in finished goods. As a result, many of the ships that brought the raw material to England were forced to make the voyage out in ballast. However, Liverpool merchants and their London colleagues soon discovered they could make money even on the voyage out by filling their otherwise empty ships with emigrants. Since all the money they made on the voyage out was profit, the Liverpool and London merchants could afford to undercut the prices of the continental European shippers, and as a consequence, like the discount airlines of the 1960's and 1970's, they soon became quite popular. By the 1840's, Germans wishing to take advantage of the cheaper fares offered from Liverpool would board ships at Hamburg or a Dutch or Belgian port [note 27]. The majority sailed to the port of Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, whence they traveled by train across Yorkshire and the Pennines to Liverpool, where they boarded ships for America. The remainder sailed directly to London, where they also boarded ships for America.

The number of Germans emigrating to America by way of England between 1850 and 1855 is difficult to determine. The reports of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, which oversaw emigration from Great Britain between 1840 and 1872, do not distinguish between citizens and "foreigners" until 1853. The 14th General Report of the Commissioners for that year, issued in 1854, lists, inter alia, 21,781 "foreigners" who had emigrated from Liverpool, and an additional 9,461 who had emigrated from London, "principally Germans who contracted with Liverpool and London shipowners to be conveyed from German ports, through the United Kingdom, to America" [note 28]. Of this total of 31,242 "foreigners", 20,406 of those embarking at Liverpool and 9,113 of those embarking at London were destined for the United States [note 29]. The 14th General Report also lists 9,292 emigrants from Liverpool to the United States, and 401 from London to the United States, whose nationality was not ascertained. Most of these are also assumed to be German [note 30], although the combined totals of "foreigners" and "undetermined nationality", in particular those for Liverpool, seem too large to apply solely to Germans [note 31]. Table 6 summarizes the number of "foreigners" and others of undetermined nationality who emigrated to the United States from English ports between 1851 and 1855 (no figures for 1850 are available) [note 32].

The editors of GTA are noticeably inconsistent in their application of the 80 percent requirement to ships from British ports. For the calendar year 1852, GTA contains transcripts of 69 manifests of ships arriving from British ports. As Table 7 indicates, people with German surnames constitute 80 percent or more of the passengers on only 12 of the 69 ships. At the lowest end of the scale, people with German surnames constitute less than 50 percent of the passengers on 14 ships. The total number of Germans listed, 14,602, is approximately 46.21 percent of the 31,600 who are assumed by British authorities to have emigrated to the United States through British ports in that year.

It is unclear to what extent the ships from British ports whose manifests are published in GTA for 1852 are representative of the total number of ships that carried German immigrants through Britain to the United States in that year. To examine to what extent GTA includes Germans immigrating to the United States through British ports, the 128 ships that sailed from Liverpool for New York between 1 July and 31 December 1853 were taken as a more representative sample [note 33]. Of these 128 ships, 33 carried no "foreigners" (i.e., Germans) among their 16,240 passengers; the other 95 ships carried a total of 46,428 passengers, including 7,894 foreigners. These 7,894 individuals represent approximately 38.68 percent of the total number of foreigners listed as having emigrated to the United States through Liverpool in all of 1853.

As Table 8 indicates, not one of these 95 ships carried more than 80 percent foreigners; indeed, the highest percentage of foreigners carried by any ship is 62.20 (316 of the 508 passengers on the Sheridan, which arrived at New York on 11 December) [note 34].

Although strict adherence to the 80-percent requirement would preclude the publication of the passenger manifest of any of these ships, GTA does include the manifests of four of them: the Silas Greenman, which arrived at New York on 28 November; the Charles Crooker, which arrived on 16 December; the Kossuth, which arrived on 19 January 1854; and the Princeton, which arrived on 3 December [note 35]. Together, these ships carried 833 foreigners, 10.55 percent of those who sailed from Liverpool to New York in the second half of 1853. They are not, however, the ships on which foreigners constituted the greatest percentage of passengers. Although the Silas Greenman and Charles Crooker rank second and third in this category (foreigners constituted 51.69 and 48.03 percent, respectively, of the total number of passengers each carried), the Sheridan, which as indicated above carried the largest percentage of foreigners among its passengers, is omitted. When the ships are ranked by the absolute number of foreigners each carried, of the 15 that carried the most (3,357 of the total 7,894), only the Kossuth (280 foreigners among a total of 603 passengers), the Charles Crooker (220 foreigners among a total of 458 passengers), and the Silas Greenman (184 foreigners among a total of 356 passengers) are included in GTA. In fact, the Kossuth ranks only fourth according to the number of foreigners it carried: it is surpassed by the New World, which arrived at New York on 28 November (337 foreigners among a total of 744 passengers) [note 36], the Sheridan (316 foreigners among a total of 508 passengers), and the Washington, which arrived on 23 October (283 foreigners among a total of 893 passengers) [note 37].

The primary reason that so few ships sailing from Liverpool to New York during the last six months of 1853 qualify for inclusion in GTA is the fact that most of them carried quite large numbers of passengers: of the 95 ships that carried foreigners, only two carried fewer than 200 passengers; seven ships carried between 200 and 299 passengers, 16 ships carried between 300 and 399, 32 ships carried between 400 and 499, 18 carried between 500 and 599, nine ships carried between 600 and 699, nine ships carried between 700 and 799, one ship carried 893, and one ship carried 962. On ships of such size, even comparatively large numbers of foreigners could be overwhelmed by the numbers of their British (in particular, Irish) fellow travelers. Thus, although the Albert Gallatin, which arrived on 30 0ctober 1853, carried 146 foreigners, they constituted only 19.95 percent of her 773 passengers [note 38]. In fact, one half of all the foreigners traveled on ships on which they constituted less than 30 percent of the total number of passengers; three-fourths of them traveled on ships on which they constituted less than 39 percent of all the passengers.

Although an exact hand count of the number of German immigrants arriving from British ports and published in GTA is impractical, the figures above strongly suggest that GTA certainly contains less than half, and probably less than one third of the German immigrants who arrived in the United States by this route.

Lacunae in Germans to America, 3: Records Destroyed.

Although GTA should contain the passenger list of every ship from Bremen or Hamburg arriving in the United States at one of the five major ports of entry between 1850 and 1855, it clearly does not. A collation of the passenger lists published in GTA with the manifests for ships sailing from Bremen to New York abstracted from National Archives Microfilm Publication M237 by Zimmerman and Wolfert in German Immigrants indicates that GTA omits some 27 lists contained by the latter [note 39]. Similarly, although GTA prints the passenger lists of 27 ships from Bremen and Hamburg that arrived at New Orleans in the fourth quarter of 1852, it omits the manifests of 10 others [note 40]. Additional gaps exist throughout all nine volumes of the work.

While the omission of one or two Bremen and Hamburg passenger manifests might be explained as an oversight by the editors--as indicated above, their application of the 80-percent regulation is not always consistent--the absence of so many suggests another cause.

Table 1 indicates that GTA contains fewer records for 1851 than for any other year; a comparison of Tables 2 and 3 further indicates that the greatest "under-representation" is of immigrants to the port of New York in the third and fourth quarters of the year. For the third quarter, during which, according to the official figures, 19,322 German immigrants arrived at New York, GTA contains the passenger manifests of only 18 ships, carrying a total of 3,106 German nationals. Of these 18 manifests, 17 date from the first 19 days of July (15 from the first nine days) and one from 29 September, just before the end of the quarter; there are no manifests at all, for any port, published for the period between 19 July and 20 September. For the fourth quarter, during which 17,493 German immigrants arrived at New York, GTA contains the manifests of only two ships, representing 493 German nationals. In fact, this "under-representation" continues through the first quarter of 1852: although the official figures state that 7,501 German immigrants entered New York during this period, GTA contains the manifests of only 14 ships, representing 2,331 German nationals.

The reviewer and his colleague, Kevin Tvedt, brought the gap between 19 July and 20 September to the attention of GTA co-editor Filby during his visit to California in September 1988. Upon his return to Baltimore, Mr. Filby discussed this gap further with Daniel C. Helmstadter, President of Scholarly Resources, the publisher of GTA, who contacted Professor Glazier at the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research. In response, Professor Glazier wrote to Mr. Helmstadter, "These passenger lists are missing. But this is not simply a case of a lost or misplaced box as there are no lists in this quarter for any other port either" [note 41].

As Mr. Helmstadter states in his cover letter, Professor Glazier thought that the original passenger lists "had been lost or destroyed a long time ago" [note 42]. Indeed, for no port do the original ship passenger manifests survive complete. The conditions under which they were stored in the various customs houses were far from ideal [note 43]. Many were deliberately destroyed by district customs collectors, who had sent copies and abstracts to the Secretary of State and anticipated no further use of them locally. Still others were accidentally destroyed by fire, most noticeably those for the ports of Baltimore (1897) and Boston (1883). However, considerable numbers of copies, abstracts, and local records (in particular, the Baltimore "City Lists" for 1833-1866) survive for the five major ports of entry. As a result, the National Archives Microfilm Publications for these ports, which substitute these supplementary records for missing or illegible originals, are largely complete.

In fact, the loss or destruction of the "original" passenger lists for the third quarter of 1851 is clearly a recent event. Of the 27 passenger manifests abstracted from National Archives Microfilm Publication M237 by Zimmerman and Wolfert in German Immigrants, and omitted from GTA, seven date from the period between 20 June and 29 September 1851, while an additional nine bear dates between 30 September and 30 December of the same year [note 44]. A check of the microfilmed New York passenger lists by Kevin Tvedt disclosed manifests of an additional 107 ships--36 from Bremen, 13 from Hamburg, 27 from Havre, 10 from Antwerp, six from Rotterdam, one from Amsterdam, seven from Liverpool, and seven from London--all of which carried significant numbers of Germans, that arrived at New York between 19 July and 29 September. A similar check of the National Archives Microfilm Publication M255, for Baltimore, by Mr. Helmstadter revealed the manifests of 23 ships that had arrived at that port between 19 July and 20 September [note 45]. Indeed, there appear to be no noticeable gaps in the National Archives Microfilm Publications for either New York or Baltimore.

The story of the proceedings that led to the transfer of the "original" ship passenger manifests for the five major ports of entry from the National Archives to the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research belongs properly to Mr. Filby and Professor Glazier, and it is hoped that one of them will see fit to publish an account. For the moment, however, it is sufficient to state that between the time it microfilmed them and the Spring of 1977, when it deposited those for the five major ports of entry with the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research, the National Archives either misplaced or, more probably, destroyed the majority of the ship passenger manifests for the third quarter of 1851 for all ports and, possibly, for the fourth quarter of the same year for New York.

In defense of the National Archives, it is important to emphasize that archives generally retain in original form less than two percent of all records they acquire. All archives distinguish between two types of records: those documents, like the United States Constitution, that are important in themselves, and those, usually more modern records, like Social Security applications, whose importance lies only in the information they contain. Ship passenger manifests as a class belong to the latter type of record. Social Security applications and ship passenger manifests are voluminous, and storing them in their original paper form consumes enormous amounts of expensive shelf and floor space. Since the material on which they are written has no intrinsic historical value, it is consequently the policy of the National Archives--as it is the policy of archives throughout the world concerning similar records--to preserve the information on these records by microfilming them, and then to destroy the originals. This policy is not without its drawbacks. In particular, handwritten documents of the 19th century may be so faded that it is impossible to read them without the aid of special lighting. Microfilming such records without this lighting does not improve their legibility; indeed, the handwriting on some microfilmed passenger manifests is so light that the pages appear at first glance to be blank.

Although the actions of the National Archives are consistent with standard archival practice, the Balch Institute has been caught clearly napping. It is standard procedure for an archive receiving a collection that has been subject to a recent sale or, like the ship passenger manifests, has been scheduled for destruction, to check such records against any surviving earlier catalogues or microfilm reproductions. An example of such a procedure is the excellent catalogue by T. Michael Womack of the Archiv des Vereins zum Schutz Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (commonly known as the "Adelsverein"), now WA MSS S-1291 in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University [note 46]. This the Institute clearly has not done. It must be admitted that the surviving passenger manifests comprise several hundred thousand individual pieces, and although the Institute has been in possession of these records for almost 13 years it is understandable that its small staff has been unable to check every single document. However, the initial accessioning process should have revealed any significant gaps in the records--the absence of passenger manifests for any port for the third quarter of 1851 must certainly have been readily apparent--and these gaps should then have been checked against the appropriate National Archives microfilm publication. Even if the initial accessioning process failed for some reason to recognize a particular gap in the records, this gap should have been noticed and checked against the National Archives microfilm publications by the GTA editorial staff.

It may be argued that since they no longer survive in paper form, and are consequently not deposited in the Balch Institute, and as both the forward and the introduction to each volume of GTA clearly state that this work contains only those records deposited in the Institute, the microfilmed passenger lists should not be included in GTA. However, as custodian of the surviving original passenger manifests for the five major ports of entry the Institute is also the custodian of the "tradition" of the records for these ports that no longer survive in their original form. Very few researchers are aware that any ship passenger lists have been destroyed since they were microfilmed by the National Archives, and as neither the forward nor the introduction mention any destruction of records researchers using GTA will expect it to be "complete" (subject to the 80-percent requirement) and to include all available records, regardless the form in which they survive. The fact that a passenger list survives only as a microfilm copy has little meaning to a researcher, whose primary interest is the names it contains rather than the medium on which it is written. (It is worth noting that in a court of law a photographic or micrographic copy has the same validity as a paper "original" [note 47].)

Lacunae in Germans to America, 4: Conclusion.

The editors and publisher have announced that they have received sufficient support to continue GTA through the 1860's, and possibly as far as the 1890's. This information is most welcome. To improve the coverage of future volumes, however, the editors might consider the following recommendations.

First, the selection criterion should be changed from ethnic background as determined by surname forms to nationality. As discussed above, determining ethnic background solely on the basis of surname forms is extremely difficult and prone to error [note 48]. While selecting passenger manifests for publication strictly on the basis of the nationality of their passengers may result in the omission of some lists on which the passengers are not German nationals but ethnic Germans from elsewhere in Europe, it is important to note that the title of the work is Germans to America, and most experienced genealogists searching for immigrant ancestors from Switzerland, France, or the Austrian Empire would not think to check a work with such a title, even if the people in question were ethnic Germans.

Secondly, the requirement that 80 percent of the passengers listed on a manifest be in some way "German" (in this case, German nationals) should be lowered considerably. Ships continued to grow in size throughout the 19th century, with the result that by the 1870's it was not unusual for a vessel specially built for the emigration trade to carry more than 1,000 passengers. To require that a ship of this size carrying at least 800 German nationals to be eligible for publication--or, to rephrase the statement, to disqualify a ship of this size carrying as many as 600 or 700 German nationals--seems unreasonable. In fact, the following two-tiered approach seems much more sensible:

1.

print in full all passengers manifests containing at least 25 percent German nationals;

2.

in the case of passenger manifests containing less than 25 percent German nationals, print only the names of the German nationals, in the order in which they appear on the manifest, together with an introductory note indicating the total number of passengers (e.g., "15 cabin, 300 steerage"), a breakdown of this number by nationality ("120 French, 82 Swiss, 37 Germans, 33 Belgians, 28 Dutch"), precisely where on the list the names of the German nationals appear, and any other relevant information, such as deaths and births during the voyage.

Finally, the editors should include transcripts of those manifests containing names of German immigrants that survive only as National Archives microfilms, or, at the very least print at the beginning of each volume a list of those microfilmed manifests that contain the names of German immigrants.

Footnotes:

1.

For an excellent account of American ship passenger arrival records, see Michael Tepper, American Passenger Arrival Records; A Guide to the Records of Immigrants Arriving at American Ports by Sail and Steam (updated and enlarged edition; Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993). Chapter 3, pp. 63-100, contains a detailed discussion of Customs Passenger Lists, and forms the basis of the following account. Return to text.

2.

The annual reports of the Secretary of State were published as House Executive Documents. Legislation in 1874 dropped the requirement that customs collectors send copies of the ship lists to the Secretary of State, and the collectors were instructed instead to send only statistical reports on passenger arrivals to the Secretary of the Treasury. Return to text.

3.

In fact, even the New York index for 1820-1846 is also imperfect, since it is an index not to the original lists, but only to the copies. Return to text.

4.

A Supplemental Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Atlantic and Gulf Coast Ports (Excluding New York), 1820-1874 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M334) does indeed include New Orleans to about 1850, but it is not comprehensive, and the date at which it ceases to include New Orleans is unclear. Return to text.

5.

Bremen was throughout the 19th century far more important than Hamburg as a port of emigration: indeed, in the 1840's and 1850's between two and three times as many emigrants sailed from Bremen as from Hamburg. The Bremen ship passenger departure lists, begun in 1832, no longer survive. Contrary to what still appears occasionally in English-language genealogical publications, the Bremen ship lists for the 19th century were not destroyed during World War II, but, beginning in 1874, as a matter of government policy two years after they were created. Zimmerman and Wolfert's work is the first major English-language publication to give an accurate account of the fate of the original 19th-century Bremen ship lists. Return to text.

6.

Since the National Archives microfilm substituted copies for missing or illegible originals, the "original" on the microfilm may not be the list submitted by the captain. Return to text.

7.

In particular, Peter Marschalck, Deutsche Überseewanderung im 19. Jahrhundert, Industrielle Welt, 14 (Stuttgart: Klett, c1973). Return to text.

8.

Statistical Review of Immigration, 1820-1910 / Distribution of Immigrants, 1850-1900, Reports of the Immigration Commission, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Executive Document No. 756, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1911), 23-29. This figure is for the year beginning 1 October 1846 through the calendar year 1867, and includes citizens of the Austrian Empire. Return to text.

9.

The breakdown by volume is as follows: 3.22 percent (27,270 out of 847,232 immigrants) for 1847-1854; 5.98 percent (26,030 out of 435,500 immigrants) for 1855-1862; and 8.11 percent (34,320 out of 423,180 immigrants) for 1863-1867. Return to text.

10.

The name appears to be "Anna Mangels," aged 19, servant, from Hannover [ship Elise, manifest dated 11.i.1850, National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 85, No. 21 (published in GTA, vol. 1, pp. 6-7); for a full discussion of this manifest, see Part 2]. Return to text.

11.

GTA, vol. 1, p. vii. Return to text.

12.

Marschalck, op. cit., p. 35, Tabelle 4. Return to text.

13.

For a discussion of these lists, see Part 2. Return to text.

14.

Sources:

1850-1851:

31st Congress, 2nd Session, Serial Set 598, House Executive Document No. 16 (4th quarter 1849-3rd quarter 1850); 32nd Congress, 1st Session, Serial Set 644, House Executive Document No. 100 (4th quarter 1850-4th quarter 1851).

1852:

32nd Congress, 2nd Session, Serial Set 679, House Executive Document No. 45. For the 4th quarter statistics for New Orleans, see page 75.

1853:

33rd Congress, 1st Session, Serial Set 723, House Executive Document No. 78.

1854:

33rd Congress, 2nd Session, Serial Set 788, House Executive Document No. 77.

1855:

34th Congress, 1st and 2nd Sessions, Serial Set 851, House Executive Document No. 29.

The official figures have been altered to omit immigrants from Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and Moravia.

Return to text.

15.

The statistics for Switzerland are puzzling, since the annual report of the Secretary of State for 1852 lists only 2,788 Swiss entering the United States during the year. Return to text.

16.

The greatest discrepancy found between the date of arrival and the date of the passenger manifest was found in the case of the ship Kossuth, which arrived at New York from Liverpool on 16 January 1854; the passenger manifest is dated 19 January 1854, 3 days later (National Archives Microfilm Publication, M237, Reel 136, No. 75; published in GTA, vol. 6, pp. 282-285). Return to text.

17.

Tepper, op. cit., p. 81. Return to text.

18.

National Archives Microfilm Publication M575. Return to text.

19.

German immigrants through miscellaneous ports, 1850-1855, by quarter:

1/1850:

Charleston, SC: 5 (4 males/1 female) from Bremen.

2/1850:

Charleston, SC: 43 males from Bremen.

3/1850:

Charleston, SC: 6 (4 males/2 females) from Bremen.

4/1851:

Charleston, SC: 122 (85 males/37 females); Mobile, AL: 6 (3 males/3 females).

2/1852:

Savannah, GA: 43 (24 males/19 females).

1/1853:

Mobile, AL: 1 male.

4/1853:

Charleston, SC: 2 males.

1/1854:

Charleston, SC: 2 males; Mobile, AL: 2 males; Portland & Falmouth, ME: 4 males. The 2 males at Mobile intend to return.

2/1854:

Charleston, SC: 96 (73 males/23 females); Mobile, AL: 1 male; Portland & Falmouth, ME: 123 (106 males/17 females); San Francisco, CA: 89 (70 males/19 females).

3/1854:

San Francisco, CA: 38 males from Germany, 1 male from Hamburg.

4/1854:

Charleston, SC: 208 (139 males/69 females) from Bremen, 25 (15 males/10 females) from Prussia; Edgartown, MA: 68 (48 males/20 females); Mobile, AL: 3 males from Prussia; Portland & Falmouth, ME: 34 (20 males/14 females); San Francisco, CA: 1 male from Prussia, 126 (95 males/31 females) from Germany.

1/1855:

Passamaquoddy, ME: 1 male; Portland & Falmouth, ME: 9 (6 males/3 females); San Francisco, CA: 129 (87 males/42 females).

2/1855:

Mobile, AL: 1 male; Oswego, NY: 1 male; Passamaquoddy, ME: 2 males; San Francisco, CA: 31 (25 males/6 females) from Germany, 2 males from Prussia.

3/1855:

Charleston, SC: 9 (5 males/4 females); Oswego, NY: 3 males; Passamaquoddy, ME: 1 male; San Francisco, CA: 2 males from Prussia, 77 (69 males/8 females) from Germany.

4/1855:

Charleston, SC: 166 (103 males/63 females); La Salle, TX: 56 (32 males/24 females); New Bern, NC: 1 male; Oswego, NY: 5 males; San Francisco, CA: 100 (74 males/26 females) from Germany, 1 male from Prussia.

Surviving records (National Archives Microfilm Publication M575): Edgartown (copies, 1820-1870), Mobile (originals, 1820-1879; copies, 1849-1852, not microfilmed), Passamaquoddy (copies, 1820-1859).

Records apparently do not survive for the following ports: Charleston, SC; La Salle, TX; New Bern, NC; Oswego, NY; Portland & Falmouth, ME; San Francisco, CA; Savannah, GA.

Return to text.

20.

National Archives Microfilm Publication M575, Reel 3, is devoted to the surviving Galveston records. These records have been transcribed in Galveston County Genealogical Society, Ships Passenger Lists, Port of Galveston, Texas, 1846-1871 (Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1984). Pages 34-51 contain the surviving records for 1850-1852. Return to text.

21.

GTA, vol. 1, p. ix. Return to text.

22.

Walter F. Willcox, ed., International Migrations (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), vol. 1, p. 692, Table II. Return to text.

23.

Willcox, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 66, Table IV (taken from the Jahrbuch für Volkswirtschaft und Statistik, 1-5 [Leipzig 1853-1857]), and p. 688 for an explanation of the figures. Figures for 1855 are not available. Return to text.

24.

Willcox, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 601-602 and 613, Table XI (statistics for Havre); Peter Marschalck, ed., Inventar der Quellen zur Geschichte der Wanderung, besonders der Auswanderung, in Bremer Archiven, Veröffentlichungen aus dem Staatsarchiv der freien Hansestadt Bremen, 53 (Bremen: Staatsarchiv der freien Hansestadt Bremen, 1986), p. 47, Anlage 2 (statistics for Bremen). Return to text.

25.

The ships, taken from the New Orleans Daily Picayune, are:

• Annapolis (Graham, master), arrived 16 November 1852, 31 days out of Havre, with 234 passengers;
• bark Ernestine (Freruks, master), arrived 30 November 1852, 45 days out of Bremen, with 286 steerage passengers;
• Post (Whorke, master), arrived 1 December 1852, 40 days out of Bremen, with 245 steerage passengers;
• Rebecca (Sawyer, master), arrived 17 December 1852, 61 days out of Bremen, with 266 steerage passengers;
• Venice (Flagg, master), arrived 18 December 1852, 46 days out of Havre, with 375 steerage passengers;
• William Nelson (Cheever, master), arrived 22 December 1852, 50 days out of Havre, with 559 steerage passengers;
• Peter Marcy (Leach, master), arrived 23 December 1852, 60 days out of Havre, with 364 steerage passengers;
• Jno. Lange (Lanke, master), arrived 23 December 1852, 64 days out of Bremen, with 700 steerage passengers;
• British bark Gem (Posgate, master), left Hamburg 16 October, arrived New Orleans 29 December 1852, with 129 steerage passengers;
• bark Jno. Parker (Williams, master), arrived 30 December 1852, 45 days out of Havre, with 191 steerage passengers;
• Oldenburg bark Oldenburg (Menke, master), left Bremen 4 October, arrived New Orleans 30 December 1852, with 300 steerage passengers;
• Bremen ship Gustave (von Lantern, master), left Bremen 27 October, arrived New Orleans 31 December 1852, with 296 steerage passengers;
• Bremen ship Ocean (Klopper, master), arrived 31 December 1852, 55 days out of Bremen, with 246 steerage passengers.

Return to text.

26.

In addition to the Annapolis, Venice, William Nelson, and Peter Marcy, listed in note 25 above:

• Samuel Badger (Salton, master), arrived 19 December 1852, left Havre 19 October 1852, number of passengers not given;
• Caroline Nesmith (Salsbury, master), arrived 26 December 1852, 50 days out of Havre, number of passengers not given;
• Connecticut (Williams, master), arrived 26 December 1852, 31 days out of Havre, number of passengers not given;
• bark Jno. Parker (Williams, master), arrived 30 December 1852, 45 days out of Havre, with 191 steerage passengers.

Return to text.

27.

Indirect emigration via Bremen was apparently of little importance and was not recorded (Willcox, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 687). Concerning indirect emigration from ports other than Hamburg, see below, note 31. Return to text.

28.

Parliamentary Papers 1854, XXVIII 1, 14th General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, p. 13. Return to text.

29.

Ibid., Appendix 4, p. 88. Corroboration for the Liverpool number is provided by the report of the Prussian consul at Liverpool to his superiors in Berlin that in 1853 20,000 Germans emigrated through that port (Willcox, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 689). Return to text.

30.

Willcox, op. cit., vol. 1., p. 689. Return to text.

31.

Whatever the case, it is important to note that Hamburg was not the only port of origin for indirect emigration. If it were, the statistics concerning indirect emigration via English ports kept since 1852 by the Hamburg authorities should approximate the numbers of "foreigners" emigrating through Liverpool and London. However, for 1853, a year in which approximately 20,000 Germans emigrated through Liverpool to the United States, the Hamburg authorities list a total of only 10,511 indirect emigrants (Willcox, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 693, Table IIa). The Hamburg figures thus account for just over half the German emigrations via Liverpool, and does not even take into account the number of German emigrations via London; if the number of Germans emigrating through London in that year is estimated at 9,000, the number of German emigrants via England who began their voyage in Hamburg drops to just over 36 percent of the total. Return to text.

32.

Sources:

1851 and 1852:

Parliamentary Papers 1852-53, XL 65, 13th General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, Appendix 28, p. 104.

1853:

Parliamentary Papers 1854, XXVIII 1, 14th General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, Appendix 4, p. 88.

1854:

Parliamentary Papers 1854-55, XVII 1, 15th General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, Appendix 3, p. 66.

1855:

Parliamentary Papers 1856, XXIV 325, 16th General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, Appendix 4, p. 56.

Return to text.

33.

Parliamentary Papers 1854, XXVIII 1, 14th General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, Appendix 22, pp. 125-126. Some of the figures are quite difficult to read on the Recordak microprint of the report available at most large university libraries, and a photocopy of the "original" report ordered from the Public Record Office in London has not arrived. However, the numbers are generally accurate, although the final digits may be incorrect. Return to text.

34.

Sheridan, arrived 11 December/manifest dated 12 December 1853 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 134, No. 1249). Return to text.

35.

Silas Greenman, arrived 26 November/manifest dated 28 November 1853 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 134, No. 1205; published in GTA, vol. 6, pp. 115-118); Charles Crooker, arrived 15 December/manifest dated 16 December 1853 (M237, Reel 135, No. 1266; published in GTA, vol. 6, pp. 176-178); Kossuth, arrived 16 January/manifest dated 19 January 1854 (M237, Reel 136, No. 75; published in GTA, vol. 6, pp. 282-285); Princeton, arrived 2 December/manifest dated 3 December 1853 (M237, Reel 134, No. 1229; published in GTA, vol. 6, pp. 124-127). Return to text.

36.

New World, arrived 28 November/manifest dated 28 November 1853 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 134, No. 1204). Return to text.

37.

Washington, arrived 23 October/manifest dated 24 October 1853 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 133, No. 1091). Return to text.

38.

Albert Gallatin, arrived 30 October/manifest dated 31 October 1853 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 133, No. 1105). Return to text.

39.

• Bremen ship Columbia, arrived 12 July/manifest dated 13 July 1850 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Reel 90, No. 746).
• Bremen bark Livonia, arrived 30 July/manifest dated 31 July 1851 (M237, Reel 102, No. 1035).
• Bremen brig Kunigunde, arrived 31 July/manifest dated 1 August 1851 (M237, Reel 102, No. 1062).
• Bremen bark Magdalene, arrived 4 August/manifest dated 5 August 1851 (M237, Reel 103, No. 1084).
• Bremen bark Adelheid [the manifest reads "Adelheim"], arrived by 4 August/manifest dated 5 August 1851 (M237, Reel 103, No. 1101).
• Bremen ship Itzstein & Welcker, arrived 12 August/manifest dated 14 August 1851 (M237, Reel 103, No. 1160).
• Bremen ship Elise, arrived 28 August/manifest dated 29 August 1851 (M237, Reel 104, No. 1245).
• Bremen bark Leontine, arrived 26 September/manifest dated 27 September 1851 (M237, Reel 105, No. 1438).
• Charlotte Read, arrived 29 September/manifest dated 30 September 1851 (M237, Reel 105, No. 1455).
• George F. Patten, arrived 2 October/manifest dated 3 October 1851 (M237, Reel 106, No. 1588 [misfiled among the manifests dated 30 October 1851]).
• Bremen bark India, arrived 14 October/manifest dated 16 October 1851 (M237, Reel 106, No. 1532).
• Bremen bark Josephine, arrived 8 or 9 November/manifest dated 10 November 1851 (M237, Reel 107, No. 1639).
• Bremen bark Norma, arrived and manifest dated 10 November 1851 (M237, Reel 107, No. 1640).
• Bremen bark Columbia, arrived 16 November/manifest dated 17 November 1851 (M237, Reel 107, No. 1686).
• Bremen ship Humboldt, arrived and manifest dated 28 November 1851 (M237, Reel 108, No. 1725).
• Bremen bark Magdalene, arrived 3 December/manifest dated 4 December 1851 (M237, Reel 108, No. 1739).
• Bremen bark Wieland, arrived and manifest dated 23 December 1851 (M237, Reel 108, No. 1796).
• Bremen ship Albert, arrived and manifest dated 10 February 1852 (M237, Reel 109, No. 117).
• Bremen bark Constitution, arrived 15 April/manifest dated 16 April 1852 (M237, Reel 111, No. 351).
• Bremen brig Gil Blas, arrived 30 September/manifest dated 1 October 1852 (M237, Reel 120, No. 1464 [misfiled among the manifests dated 20 October 1852]).
• Bremen bark Hansa, arrived 8 December/manifest dated 9 December 1852 (M237, Reel 122, No. 1625).
• Bremen bark Figaro, arrived and manifest dated 28 May 1853 (M237, Reel 126, No. 435).
• Oldenburg ship Großherzogin von Oldenburg, arrived 18 December/manifest dated 19 December 1854 (M237, Reel 149, No. 1676).
• Bremen bark Republik, arrived and manifest dated 29 May 1855 (M237, Reel 152, No. 413).
• Bremen bark Mimi, arrived and manifest dated 22 June 1855 (M237, Reel 153, No. 538).
• Bremen bark Anna Delius, arrived 22 June/manifest dated 23 June 1855 (M237, Reel 153, No. 544).
• Bremen clipper Anna Lange, arrived 23 December/manifest dated 24 December 1855 (M237, Reel 159, No. 1240).

Return to text.

40.

In addition to the bark Ernestine, Post, Rebecca, Jno. Lange, British bark Gem, Oldenburg bark Oldenburg, Bremen ship Gustave, Bremen ship Ocean, listed in note 25 above:

• Martha (Klockgiter, master), left Bremen 10 October, arrived New Orleans 26 December 1852, number of passengers not given;
• Bremen brig Helene ("Hachturahun", master), left Bremen 21 October, arrived New Orleans 28 December 1852, number of passengers not given.

Return to text.

41.

Ira A. Glazier to Daniel C. Helmstadter, November 23, 1988. The 17 manifests which date from the period 1-19 July (viz., the beginning of the quarter), and the one that dates from 29 September (the end of the quarter) were most probably misfiled among the records of the preceding and following quarter, respectively, either by the customs collector or by the National Archives staff when it accessioned the records. Return to text.

42.

Daniel C. Helmstadter to Kevin Tvedt, December 7, 1988. Return to text.

43.

Tepper, op. cit., p. 65. Return to text.

44.

The first group includes the ships Livonia, Kunigunde, Magdalene, Adelheid, Itzstein & Welcker, Elise, and Leontine, the second the ships Charlotte Read, George F. Patten, India, Josephine, Norma, Columbia, Humboldt, Magdalene, and Wieland, listed in note 39 above. Return to text.

45.

See [note 42]. Return to text.

46.

T. Michael Womack, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of Western Americana, WA MSS S-1291: Archiv des Vereins zum Schutz Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (New Haven, Connecticut, 1987), pp. 45-48; for a history of the collection, see pp. 4-6. See also T. Michael Womack, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of Western Americana, WA MSS S-1316: Friedrich Armand Strubberg Collection (New Haven, Connecticut, 1988), a catalogue of the related Friedrich Armand Strubberg Collection, which contains approximately 40 percent of the files missing from the "Adelsverein" collection. Catalogues for both the Adelsverein Collection and the Strubberg Collection are accessible on the internet. Return to text.

47.

44 U.S.C. § 2112; 28 U.S.C. § 1732 (b). Return to text.

48.

In addition, determining ethnic affiliation on the basis of surname forms alone, if taken to its logical extreme, has the potential to miscarry, excluding large numbers of surnames--"non-German" in form, but born by German nationals--from counting towards any percent requirement for publication in GTA. In Middle Germany (roughly the area of the former German Democratic Republic) Slavic surnames, such as those ending in "-witz", are common, while many people whose origins lie in Northeast Germany (the former Prussian provinces of East and West Prussia and Posen) bear surnames ending in the "Polish" suffix "-ski" or "-sky". In both cases, however, the bearers of these surnames consider themselves unequivocally "German". Likewise, descendants of Huguenots who settled in Germany in the years following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 consider themselves German despite their distinctly "French" surnames. However, a strict interpretation of this selection criterion would exclude all such surnames from being counted towards fulfillment of any percent requirement. Return to text.

An earlier version of this article was published in German Genealogical Society of America Bulletin, vol. 4, No. 3/4 (May/August 1990), 69, 71-90.

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