Ship passenger lists appear in two basic types: embarkation and
    arrival lists.  German emigrants after 1850 typically embarked
    in Hamburg or Bremen; before the 1830s the usual ports were
    Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam.  The Bremen passenger
    lists of 1832-1872 were destroyed in 1875 by governmental decree
    owing to want of storage space.  Thereafter only the current and
    two previous years were kept, until the destruction ceased in 1907.
    The lists of 1906-1931 were placed in the Statistisches Landesamt
    Bremen, which was bombed on 6 October 1944, resulting in the
    destruction of the remaining Bremen lists.  An incomplete name
    index of the lists for 1904-1914 is held at the Bundesarchiv
    Koblenz, with microfilms available via your local LDS FHC.  The
    Bremen Handelskammer archives has an apparently complete duplicate
    of the lists for 1920-1923,1925-1939 and a few lists back to 1834.

    The Hamburg embarkation lists 1850-1934 are available on microfilm
    via your local LDS FHC.  They are indexed and usually indicate the
    last residence of the emigrant, an important datum for researchers.

    A few Bremen and Hamburg embarkation lists otherwise unavailable
    were published in the Allgemeine Auswanderungs-Zeitung (1847-1871,
    Rudolstadt).  Some of these have been republished by Clifford
    Neal Smith and others.

    Arrival lists are available for many American ports, but are not
    quite as useful as the embarkation lists in determining place of
    last residence.  The US arrival lists are available at the US
    National Archives, many large research and genealogical libraries,
    and through your local LDS FHC.  Many of the New York City arrival
    lists in the period 1892-1924 are available online at
      <http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/>
    The arrival lists are also partially indexed in the book series
    _Germans to America_.

    See also the pages at
      <http://www.genealogy.net/misc/emig/>
      <http://home.att.net/~arnielang/shipgide.html>

    Some passenger ship information can be found online at
      <http://www.geocities.com/mppraetorius/>
      <http://www.cimorelli.com/pie/emigrate/emigmenu.htm>
      <http://www.fortunecity.com/littleitaly/amalfi/13/ships.htm>
      <http://www.CyndisList.com/ships.htm>

Some parts © 2009 Advameg, Inc.