Germans To America

Germans to America, 1850-1897

This immigration database includes more than 4 million Germans who arrived in the United States between 1850 and 1897 through the ports of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia.

German Immigration records may include:

• First name(s)
• Last name
• Birth Year
• Year of Arrival
• Occupation
• Country of origin
• City or town of last residence
• Port of arrival
• Destination
• Travel compartment
• Port of departure
• Date of arrival
• Ship’s name

Notes: The information in this database was provided by the National Archives and Records Administration and contains official extracts from more than four million arrivals at the ports of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia between 1850 and 1897. Nearly 9 percent of those included in the database identified their country of origin as Germany.

German people are one of the largest groups who emigrated to the United States. Modernization caused a shift in traditional jobs leading many Germans to leave the country during the late 19th century. By 1870, German-born farmers made up one third of the agricultural industry in rural areas of the East Coast, particularly concentrated near the port region of Pennsylvania and eventually migrating to Wisconsin in the Midwest.