A Child's View of a Journey from Germany to America in 1887

In 1884 my great grandfather, Johann (John) Nelke, came to America when he was 17 with his uncle's family. They settled in St. Louis, Missouri. John saved money to help pay for the passage of the rest of his family—his parents, Johann and Amelia, and his three younger sisters, Adeline, Hedwig (Hattie), and Bertha. They left from Rotterdam on a ship called the S.S. Rotterdam, arriving in New York on Thursday, May 26, 1887. The youngest Nelke passenger on the ship, Bertha, was twelve. After she grew up, one of her children, Melba Heyderich, wrote down what Bertha told her about life in Germany and the trip to St. Louis. So here is a secondhand account of a child's journey from Germany to America in 1887. As later told to her daughter...

Continue Reading: A Child's View of a Journey from Germany to America in 1887

Christina Beine, the Girl They Left Behind

When my Beine German immigrant family went to America in 1880, they left their oldest daughter Christina behind. She was eleven years old. Here is her story...

Continue Reading: Christina Beine, the Girl They Left Behind

Updated on 4 June 2022.

Celebrating 15 Years of German Roots

This month marks the 15th anniversary of my German Roots genealogy website, which was launched in October 1998. The original idea was to have some useful tips and online resources for Americans with German ancestors, including suggestions for researching back to a person's German immigrant, how to find the immigrant's German hometown, and what to do next. Many directories of online genealogy records got added along the way. Those are probably what the German Roots website is best known for.

Directories of Online Genealogy Records
In 2000 I added a new webpage of online US death indexes and it quickly became the most popular page on the German Roots website. Three years later that webpage became quite large so I divided it in half, and then decided to spin it off into its own website with a page for each state. That single webpage on the German Roots website became the Online Searchable Death Indexes and Records website, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next month.

Similar directories of online genealogy indexes were added to the German Roots website, for both U.S. and German records. Here are some of the most popular:

Online Birth and Marriage Records and Indexes (USA)

Ship Passenger Lists and Records on the Internet

Online Searchable Naturalization Records and Indexes (USA)

Online German Genealogy Records and Databases

The military indexes page was spun off into its own website in 2004. See: Online Military Indexes and Records

Wee Monster Genealogy
As some of you may remember, the German Roots website originally had this URL: http://home.att.net/~wee-monster. AT&T Worldnet was my ISP at the time and Monster was the name of my dog, who was wee in stature. That changed in 2010 when Worldnet closed down their personal webpages. Now the German Roots website is at http://www.germanroots.com/. If you still have links that use any of the old "wee-monster" URLs, they will no longer work. But you can find a handy guide with updated URLs of the most popular "wee-monster" webpages here: Wee-Monster Genealogy Webpages

As the German Roots website celebrates its 15th anniversary I hope it has been a useful tool for some in finding their ancestors.

130 Years of the Beine Family in America

July 12, 1880 - July 12, 2010

Binn? Beim? Beine? Just how do you spell my last name? (If you want to know how to pronounce it, see Megan Smolenyak's book, Who Do You Think You Are, page 47). When I was looking for the ship passenger list for my immigrant Beine family, this is what I encountered:

Germans to America (Vol. 36, page 26) lists the family with the surname Binn. The Philadelphia passenger lists index (National Archives microfilm roll M360-7) lists the family members with the surname Beim. Well, they almost got it right. It was the Philadelphia index that actually led me to the passenger list, which I found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in 2002. Here are the details...

Ship: SS Pennsylvania
Arrived: July 12, 1880 in Philadelphia from Liverpool
Ship's Captain: Harris
335 total passengers

The Beine family are on pages 1 and 2:

Augt. Beine, 40, male, labourer, Germany (August)
Mrs. Beine, 39, female, wife, Germany (Christina)
Augt., 11, male, child, Germany (August)
Elisabeth, 9, female, child, Germany
Anna, 7, female, child, Germany
Johannis, 5, male, child, Germany
Augt., 4, female, child, Germany (Augusta)
Anton, 2, male, child, Germany
Helen, -, female, infant, Germany

From: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at the Port of Philadelphia; FHL Microfilm Roll #419674 (National Archives Microfilm Roll #M425-100)

August and Mrs. (Christina) Beine are my great great grandparents. Their son, August, is my great grandfather. They left their oldest daughter, Christine, behind in Germany. You can read her story here: Christina Beine, the Girl They Left Behind. I only have three records that mention the youngest child, Helena - her German baptismal record, the family's German emigration record and the Philadelphia passenger list (above). After that she disappears. There's no indication she died on the voyage. I'm assuming she died while still an infant after the family settled in Missouri. But I've never been able to find a death or burial record for her.

August and Christine had one more child, William, after arriving in the United States. William's World War II draft registration card gives his place of birth as Silica, Missouri. That ended up being an important clue that showed the family first settled in Jefferson County, Missouri before moving to St. Louis.

My great great grandfather, August Beine, was a coal miner in Germany and became one in the U.S. as well. Once settled in St. Louis, he worked in coal mines across the Mississippi River in Illinois, where he eventually lived. The 1910 census shows August, Christine, William, and a grandson, Fred, living in Looking Glass Township/New Baden Village, Illinois. August died in 1913, Christine in 1925. They are buried in Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in St. Louis.

August Beine was born in 1839 in a small German village called Grosseneder. His wife, Christina Walter (born 1840), is from another small German village called Siddinghausen. I visited both villages in 1995. The couple was married in Stoppenberg, which was then a suburb and is now a part of, the German city of Essen. Their children (except William) were baptized at the St. Nikolaus Catholic Parish there.

So July 12, 2010 is the 130th anniversary of this Beine family's arrival in the United States. I propose a celebration involving German beer. Prost!

For more information on my Beine immigrant family see:
How I Found Some Genealogy Records for My German Ancestors

Sources used for this article - 130 Years of the Beine Family in America

This article was updated on 8 March 2018.

How I Found Some Genealogy Records for My German Ancestors

Last year I obtained a marriage record from a church in Germany that was not available at the Family History Library. I thought this might be a helpful example of how you can sometimes find genealogy records by writing to churches or archives in Germany.

My immigrant ancestors, August and Christine (Walter) Beine came to the US in 1880 with 7 of their children. August Beine was originally from a small German village called Grosseneder and Christine Walter came from another village called Siddinghausen. I have already researched their family lines in each of the villages, but I was not able to find their marriage record in either place. But I have a photocopy of a family document that gives the birth and baptismal dates of their German born children from the St. Nikolaus Catholic Parish in Stoppenberg, Germany. Stoppenberg was then a suburb and is now a neighborhood of the city of Essen. I always assumed the couple was married in Stoppenberg and recently I decided to pursue obtaining a copy of their marriage record.

The LDS Family History Library does not have microfilmed records for the St. Nikolaus Parish. So I needed to determine where the church's records, if available, were located. Essen is a Catholic diocese ("Bistum" in German), and using Google, I found the Essen diocese has a website: http://www.bistum-essen.de. From the website's contact link I sent an email asking where the St. Nikolaus parish records were today. I received a response saying the records were still at the St. Nikolaus church and was given an email address for the parish priest.

St. Nikolaus Catholic Church in Essen-Stoppenberg

I emailed the parish priest, asking if I could obtain the marriage record of August Beine and Christine Walter, and the baptismal record of their son, also named August, who is my great grandfather. Three weeks later I received a response saying he had found the records I wanted and was sending copies. A few days later the photocopies arrived in the mail.

I had inquired about a fee in my email to the church, and the response was: "We don't get a fee for this service, but it would be nice if you can give a donation to a project of the Roman-Catholic parish in your town." So I made a donation to a local parish.

I have a family document that gave me the name of the town and parish in Germany. But you may not have something like this. Here's a list of other places where you might find the name of your ancestral village in Germany:

Tips for Finding Your German Immigrant Ancestor's Hometown in Germany

This article may help if you already know the name of the village or town:
Tips for Finding German Genealogy Records for your German-American Ancestor

The above photograph of the St. Nikolaus Catholic Church in Essen-Stoppenberg by Joe Beine, February, 2018

This article was updated on 8 March 2018

Tips for Finding German Genealogy Records for Your German-American Ancestor

After I posted Tips for Finding Your German Immigrant Ancestor's Hometown in Germany last month, someone asked me what the next step was. She already had the name of her immigrant ancestor's hometown and didn't know where to look for further research. So here are some suggestions that may be helpful...

Is Anything Online? - German Genealogy Records on the Internet
Some German genealogy indexes and digitized records are available online. Here's a handy starting point: Online German Genealogy Indexes and Databases.

German Genealogy Records at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City
I usually start a German genealogy research project by checking the FamilySearch Catalog to see if they have any digitized microfilm records for the place where my German ancestor lived. Doing a "Place Search" in their online catalog for the name of the town can tell you whether they have digitized microfilmed records for that town. You may also want to search for the broader region or for nearby towns.

Be aware that other German towns across Germany may have the same or similar names as the town you're looking for. To help find the correct location you might try checking German maps or German gazetteers.

Church records are often used for doing genealogy research in Germany so it is helpful to know your ancestor's religious affiliation. If your ancestral family's place of residence doesn't have a church they may have gone to one in a nearby town.

German Genealogy Records in Germany (if not available from FamilySearch)
If FamilySearch doesn't have the records you need, then you can try writing letters or emails to local parishes, civil or religious archives, or civil registration offices in Germany. The book, Ancestors in German Archives: A Guide to Family History Sources, can be a helpful reference (try your local library). Some German archives have websites. Many of these are listed in the book, or you might try a Google search for the name of the archive you need. This directory may also be helpful: Deutsche ArchivPortal

The Germany Letter Writing Guide from the FHL may be helpful for writing to German parishes and archives. There will usually be fees for any research requests you have (even if records are not found). In some cases, you may want to hire a local researcher in Germany, especially if you need extensive research done.

Disclaimer: you may not be able find records for your German ancestor using this guide. These are merely suggestions.

The next article in this series: How I Found Some Genealogy Records for My German Ancestors

This article was updated on 12 May 2020

Tips for Finding Your German Immigrant Ancestor's Hometown in Germany

This article was updated on 24 March 2020.

Here are some suggestions where you might find the German place of origin (city, town, or village) for your immigrant ancestor who came to America from Germany. Knowing the name of the town can help you take your genealogy research back to Germany to look for German genealogy records.

Ship Passenger Records (arrivals)

• "Last residence" (name of town) for each passenger is usually given on U.S. passenger arrival records starting about 1893 (this varies by port). All New York passenger arrival records starting with June 1897 and later should have this information for each passenger. Earlier passenger records (beginning with 1820) sometimes list the town of residence for the passengers, but most do not.
• Ship Passenger Lists Guide, 1820-1960s For Ships Arriving at U.S. Ports from Europe and Other Places
• Finding Passenger Lists before 1820 lists many sources for finding immigration related material before 1820
• Germans to America indexes German immigrant passengers for the major ports (New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and New Orleans).
• Germans to America 1850-1897
  • The 1850-1897 period can be searched online at: National Archives - Access to Archival Databases - Passenger Lists
• Germans to America Series II: the 1840s (books only)
• New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924
  • Also: New York Passenger Lists Research Guide 1820-1962
• Also see: Ship Passenger Lists and Records on the Internet

Hamburg Passenger Departure Lists

• Many Hamburg departure lists have survived and they usually give the last residence for each passenger.
• For information see: The Hamburg Passenger Departure Lists 1850-1934

Other Sources - Death Certificates, Obituaries, Naturalization Records, Biographies, more...

• Church Records...
  • American church records sometimes give the place of origin of immigrant families - FamilySearch might have some of these on digitized microfilm - check the FamilySearch Catalog.
  • Sometimes church records for German churches in America will list the German place of birth of the parents in the baptismal records of their children (try FamilySearch).
  • If you don't know which church your ancestor attended look for churches near the address where he or she lived - you can sometimes find addresses in census records and city directories.
• Death Certificates usually give place of birth (often just the country, but sometimes the town is given).
• Online Finding Aid: Directory of Online Death Records Indexes and Death Certificates
• Obituaries - search the local newspaper(s) where your ancestor died a day or more after the date of death
• Obituaries in American German language newspapers...
  • List of American German Language Newspapers Online at Chronicling America
  • Also try checking at a library in the area your ancestor lived
• Naturalization Records Naturalization records from September 27, 1906 and later usually list the place of birth; Naturalization records before Sept. 27, 1906 generally do not name the place of birth, but a few occasionally will have this.
  • Guide to Finding U.S. Naturalization Records
  • The 1900-1940 federal censuses show whether an immigrant was naturalized. The 1920 census gives year of naturalization.
  • Types of Naturalization Records describes declarations of intention, petitions, certificates, etc.
  • Suggested Book: Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States by Christina Schaefer
  • Passport Applications - these usually have the applicant's place of birth (although some just have state or country). Not everyone had a passport. Passport applications are available from the U.S. National Archives for 1795-1905 (with gaps) and 1906-March 31, 1925. See the "Guide to Finding U.S. Naturalization Records" link above for information about these records with links to online records.
• County Histories and Biographies
  • Online Finding Aid: Online County Histories, Biographies and Indexes
• Family tradition - talk to your relatives
• Family documents, photo albums, family Bibles...
• World War I Draft Registration Cards nearly 11 million (men born about June 1886 to June 1897) of the 24 million total draft cards asked for location of birth (town, state, nation).
• World War II Draft Cards have place of birth ("town or county" and "state or country"). See: Online World War II Indexes and Records - USA
• Records in Germany...
  • German Emigration Lists (lists of people who applied to leave Germany)
  • Germany Births and Baptisms 1558-1898, Marriages 1558-1929 and other records at FamilySearch These collections are not complete, but they may contain clues to help further your research in German records.
  • Places to Find German Genealogy Records and Databases Online
• International Genealogical Index (IGI)
• Determining a Place of Origin in Germany from FamilySearch is a helpful resource

Disclaimer: you may not find the place name in any of the records listed here. These are merely suggestions.

This outline was derived from the "Find your Immigrant Ancestor" section of the Basic Reasearch Guide for German Genealogy. It was created for the Germanic Genealogy Society of Colorado.

You can download a printable PDF version of this outline from: Genealogy Roots Blog Files: Finding Your German Ancestor's Hometown

Next Article in this Series: Tips for Finding German Genealogy Records for your German-American Ancestor