Ancestory

The people on the boat

Every other page here counts people in the millions. This one does the opposite. The Bremen record is not only a set of totals — it is 735,524 named individuals established [bremenMigration] , each with an age, a trade, a home town and a destination. And it holds a quiet structure the totals hide: families travelled together. People who boarded the same ship, on the same day, from the same town, under the same surname were almost always one family — so we can lift them back out of the flat list, whole.

Families who crossed together

Sixteen, reconstructed — a spread across the places the ships were bound:

The Graczkowski family
Pzapoki → Rio de Janeiro
on the Bonn, 1908 · farmer
  • Jozef 45
  • Jozefa 40
  • Waclaw 19
  • Stefania 16
  • Alexander 14
  • Pelagia 11
  • Czeslaw 9
  • Stanislaw 8
  • Felix 5
The Schimpf family
Erlenbach → Michigan
on the Main, 1914 · farmer
  • David 44
  • Katharina 35
  • Georg Heinz 34
  • Ewa 28
  • Emilia 15
  • Anna 11
  • Marie 9
  • Heinrich 4
  • Pauline 1
The Singer family
Berejsaz → Pennsylvania
on the München, 1927
  • Roz 39
  • Helene 19
  • Margit 18
  • Ludwik 16
  • Samuel 12
  • Banny 11
  • Fannie 9
  • Aranka 9
  • Hosnalka 5
The Jegg family
Großkarolinenfeld → New York
on the Berlin, 1930 · farmer
  • Johann 39
  • Kreszenz 39
  • Anna 12
  • Johann 11
  • Maria 10
  • Ludwig 9
  • Ernestine 6
  • Rudolf 4
  • Peter 2
The Kulhanek family
Drachov → Minnesota
on the Main, 1908 · smith
  • Jan 48
  • Marie 39
  • Jan 16
  • Marie 14
  • Anna 11
  • Jaroslaw 8
  • Ruzena 6
  • Bozena 3
  • Frantisek 0
The Grosze family
Homolicz → Buenos Aires
on the Gotha, 1908 · farmer
  • Anton 35
  • Therese 35
  • Antal 11
  • Heinrich 11
  • Matheus 8
  • Anna 5
  • Rosalia 4
  • Mechtilde 2
  • Theres 0
The Konstantinovas family
Ivainiskai → Santos
on the Sierra Ventana, 1928 · farmer
  • Povilas 42
  • Marta 37
  • Gardejus 15
  • Luka 13
  • Savelijus 9
  • Gregorius 7
  • Feodosia 4
  • Jonas 2
  • Evdokia 0
The Merkel family
Sofiental → South Dakota
on the Main, 1908 · farmer
  • Jacob 43
  • Elisabeta 40
  • Magdalena 18
  • Jacob 11
  • Elisabeta 9
  • Ekaterina 7
  • Johann 4
  • Christina 3
  • Eva 0
The Lapins family
Bitnecki → Suedbrasilien
on the Sierra Salvada, 1934 · farmer
  • Janis 58
  • Anna 58
  • Arvids 31
  • Zeedonis 28
  • Alberts 26
  • Austra 24
  • Laura 21
  • Teodors 17
  • Anna 14
The Becker family
Emmerzhausen → Wisconsin
on the George Washington, 1925 · farmer
  • Heinrich 55
  • Hulda 49
  • Hertha 19
  • Paul 17
  • Ida 15
  • Wilhelm 13
  • Robert 11
  • Ella 10
  • Richard 6
The Hermann family
Meynowka → North Dakota
on the George Washington, 1914 · farmer
  • Philipina 40
  • Stephan 40
  • Johannes 18
  • Peter 14
  • Helena 13
  • Michael 11
  • Gottlieb 9
  • Emma 4
  • Barbara 0
The Misajedovus family
Kobariskiu → Sao Paulo
on the Sierra Morena, 1927 · farmer
  • Antanas 47
  • Tatijana 38
  • Nastasija 16
  • Foma 14
  • Ripina 12
  • Efdoki 9
  • Parfilas 7
  • Afdakijus 5
  • Matrona 3
The Falkowsky family
Augsburg → Winnipeg, Man
on the Derfflinger, 1928 · farmer
  • Johann 47
  • Pauline 40
  • Jacob 18
  • David 16
  • Maria 15
  • Johann 13
  • Marta 10
  • Herbert 6
  • Alfred 5
The Felsch family
Niendorf, b Grevesmühlen → Rio Grande do Sul
on the Hannover, 1921 · farmer
  • Reinhold 27
  • Martha 27
  • Heinrich 25
  • Genoveva 18
  • Genoveva 6
  • Edith 4
  • Agate 2
  • Amanda 1
  • Helene 0
The Schneider family
Brigidan → MacNutt
on the Pallanza, 1914 · farmer
  • Johann 47
  • Barbara 41
  • Heinrich 17
  • Jacob 15
  • Elisabeth 11
  • Fillippine 10
  • Emilie 8
  • Johann 4
  • Filipp 0
The Baisch family
Misowka → Walsh, AB
on the Pallanza, 1914 · farmer
  • Christian 45
  • Louise 32
  • Karoline 18
  • Johannes 14
  • Friederike 11
  • Gottlieb 6
  • Rudolf 4
  • Jacob 2
  • Solomina 0

Read them and the emigration stops being a statistic. The Schimpfs of Erlenbach to Michigan, nine of them down to one-year-old Pauline; a Polish farm family to the coffee country of Rio Grande do Sul; a household to a homestead in Saskatchewan. The head’s trade is nearly always the same — farmer, day-labourer — the landless leaving for land.

How many left as a family

It was far from rare. Of the emigrants we can group, 36.7% — 200,790 people — boarded alongside at least one relative probable [bremenMigration] , in 76,249 reconstructed family groups. The rest went alone: a single young name on the line, crossing an ocean by themselves.

A page from the manifest

And the individuals — a sample of the record as it actually reads, one line per person:

NameAgeTradeFromToYear
Osip Abasaris ♂ 17 farmer Gegalie Connecticut 1907
Elisabeth Abasaris ♀ 19 maid Gegalie Connecticut 1907
Val Abelonszky ♂ 36 farmer Nagylibercze Pennsylvania 1907
Stamsa Abina ♂ 31 farmer Bunic Illinois 1907
Anton Aborski ♂ 18 farmer Biendurko New York 1907
Duka Abradovic ♂ 25 farmer Petrovac Wisconsin 1907
Mile Abradovic ♂ 28 farmer Petrovac Wisconsin 1907
Ziva Abradovic ♂ 39 farmer Homvlic Pennsylvania 1907
Abraham Aber ♂ 24 tailor Odobessty Buenos Aires 1913
Michael Abramczyk ♂ 29 day-labourer Hemmeling Buenos Aires 1913
Elisabeth Achilles ♀ 37 teacher Rio De Janeiro Rio De Janeiro 1913
Louis Adler ♂ 4 farmer Eichenbüchel Pennsylvania 1913
Harry Adler ♂ 8 farmer Eichenbüchel Pennsylvania 1913
Benny Adler ♂ 6 farmer Eichenbüchel Pennsylvania 1913
Gustav Adler ♂ 34 Eisenbahnbeamter Omaha Illinois 1913
Helene Adler ♀ 30 dependent Omaha Illinois 1913
Reissel Abramawicz ♀ 45 Hausfrau Bialystok New York 1920
Ajska Abramowicz ♀ 30 Hausfrau Kletak New York 1920
Joseph Abrozewicz ♂ 32 Modelier Simmy New York 1920
Menachem Ackermann ♂ 26 Buchdrucker Gehilfe Berlin New York 1920
Marie Adam ♀ 22 maid Kosice New Jersey 1920
Pavel Adamce ♂ 16 farmer Strasnice New York 1920
Alzbeta Adamek ♀ 31 Hausfrau Brezova Connecticut 1920
Franz Adamek ♂ 9 Schülerin Brezova Connecticut 1920
Gustav Aaderup ♂ 37 Ingenieur Kopenhagen Rio de Janeiro 1930
Trajan Aanasovic ♂ 45 Barbier Bitolj New York 1930
Svend Aasted ♂ 30 merchant Kopenhagen Havarupst, Dänemark 1930
Sora Abavicaite ♀ 23 maid Ziezmariai Montevideo 1930
Friedrich Abb ♂ 29 labourer NY New York 1930
Hinrich Abbenseth ♂ 18 farmer Armstorf New York 1930
Gerhard Abbung ♂ 22 tailor Vreden Ohio 1930
Max Abel ♂ 27 Graveur New York New York 1930

What this is, and isn’t

An honest word on method. The families are reconstructed, not recorded as such: sharing a ship, a day, a town and a surname is near-certain evidence of one family, but the manifest never says so outright, and now and then it will join a stranger. This is a curated sample, not a search service — the full dataset of 735,524 people is open (CC-BY) and downloadable from the source established [bremenMigration] , and we point to it rather than re-hosting it. Everyone here departed before 1940 and is long gone. But within those limits, this is the thing the aggregates can never be: the emigration with its names on.

Stage 6 of 8 · The transatlantic arc

Sources