The German Emigrants Database
Emigration played a significant role for Bremerhaven. Since the first harbor basin was put into operation in 1830, Bremerhaven has developed into the largest emigration port in continental Europe. Over 7.2 million people embarked in Bremerhaven to start a new life overseas.
Reappraisal of the local history as an emigration port is therefore a concern of the Bremerhaven Historical Museum. The German Emigrant Database (DAD) was created in this context. Since 2000, it has been the result of a research project by the Center for Immigration Research at Temple University Philadelphia/USA and the Bremerhaven Historical Museum on European emigration to the United States of America. Sources are the historical passenger lists of the emigrant ships, the originals which are stored in the National Archives/New York. Under Prof. Dr. Ira A. Glazier, the former director of the Center for Immigration Research, these passenger lists had been digitizing since 1980. As part of a cooperation agreement between the Center for Immigration Research and the Förderkreis Historisches Museum Bremerhaven e.V., the lists recorded were made available to the Historisches Museum Bremerhaven in 1998 for research and information purposes. Under the project management of Dr. Alfred Kube and Dr. Anja Benscheidt and in close contact with Prof. Dr. Ira A. Glazier, these data sets were transferred to the DAD in cooperation with the business informatics course at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. The last data sets were added in 2007.
The passenger lists were recorded for the years 1820 to 1833, 1840 to 1848, 1850 to 1891 as well as the year 1904 and partly the year 1907.
The DAD primarily takes into account the German emigration ports of Bremen/Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Brake, Emden and Cuxhaven. The ports of Boulogne, Cherbourg, Le Havre and Southampton as well as other ports are also partly included. Before crossing the Atlantic, the ships often called at several ports in Europe and took passengers on board. The passengers also included business travelers, tourists and those just passing through. These are specifically identified in the DAD.
The passenger lists are handwritten documents in form form. They have come down to us in varying quality and contain different information depending on the period. In addition, they are based on voluntary oral information provided by the emigrants. Incorrect or general information therefore occurs, as do transcription errors in the spelling of names.
The information recorded initially includes the first and last name, the age in years or, for small children, in months, the gender, the profession, in some cases the origin and the name of the ship, the dates of the crossing time and the Port of departure and arrival. Since 1904, information on marital status, nationality, ability to read and write, health, financial assets and, if applicable, addresses in the USA have been added. In 1907, height, hair, eye and skin color as well as place of birth, country of birth and special characteristics were also asked. In total, information from around five million emigrants is recorded in this form. Depending on the time period, the DAD enables searches on family, social, economic or regional issues using this information, which is recorded at varying levels of time.