Emigration to America

The German emigration to America began  in the 17th and 18th Century. The first  German emigrant group migrated in 1683 for religious reasons and founded Germantown. The number of German emigrants before 1776, however, is unknown because there are no emigrants statistics for that time, the emigration did not start at German seaports and the number of people who emigrated illegally is indeterminate.

Since 1820 U.S. immigration statistics can be used for the investigation of German immigration to America, but they are partially unreliable. Overall, for the 18th century a staggering emigration movement are detected. Between 1787 and 1820  approximately 30,000 to 50,000 German emigrated to North America. The emigration peaked in the years 1845 to 1856, 1865 to 1875 and 1880 to 1885. Later the German emigration movement lost its importance. The trend of the emigration thus indicates the political and social conditions in Germany and America. Until the 19th Century, there were no restrictions for German immigrants at the US border.

Archives with emigration data show a high uncertainty, because the passenger lists of emigrant ships are handwritten documents, with a different quality. The quality of data is dependent on many factors, such as damaged lists, illegible handwriting, corrections or deletions to the list, or something else like that. In the late 19th century there was a lack of quality of  the writers (inaccurate assignment of entries, slipped lines, and entries for multiple people or entire families or similar). Often the entries based on passenger lists to the verbal statements of the emigrants. Mishearing or deliberate changes of names or occupations (Americanization) losses  are leading to changes of the original data. Also, the information on the passenger lists are inconsistent depending on the period. Sometimes false information was provided because the emigration was not approved by the German authorities.