United States, Germans to America Index - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of data files relating to the immigration of Germans to the United States for arrivals 1850-1897. Created by the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Center for Immigration Research.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Information found in this collection may include:


 * Name of immigrant
 * Date of immigration
 * Age
 * Gender
 * Country of origin
 * Port of departure
 * Name of ship
 * Port of entry
 * Literate?

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know one or more of the following:


 * The name of your ancestor
 * The country of origin where your ancestor immigrated from
 * The destination city or country where your ancestor immigrated to
 * The approximate age of your ancestor
 * The names of other family members your ancestor may have been with at the time of immigration

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the boxes on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination.

As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

Keep in mind:


 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections, see the wiki article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the name of your ancestor to locate church and land records
 * The country/town of last residence can lead you to census records
 * The destination city can also lead you to census records
 * Continue to search the index and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have served in the same unit or a nearby unit.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * You may need to compare the information of more than one family or person to make this determination.
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals with the same family number.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):