Today’s post is about Using Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934. 

Lately I’ve had some great luck using Hamburger Passagierlisten, 1850-1934 database. Also known as Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934, this database at Ancestry is essential for European migration.

These lists were completed by clerks for Hamburg-based steamship lines. Using information from emigrants before their ships left for the U.S., the lists contain more specific information about places of residence before emigration than I’ve found in the corresponding New York passenger arrival lists.

More about using Hamburg Passenger database and images, as described by Ancestry:

This database contains passenger lists of ships that departed from the port of Hamburg, Germany from 1850-1934 (with a gap from 1915-1919 due to World War I). The database includes images of the passenger lists digitized from microfilm in partnership with the Hamburg State Archive, available here for the first time online. It also includes a complete index for the years 1850-1914 (up to the start of World War I) and 1920-1926.

Ancestry helpfully notes that since the records are in German, so it helps to search in German. Only the years 1877-1914 have been indexed at this point. They also suggest browsing the Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934 if your ancestors have not yet been included in the index.

For translations of the categories of information included in the Hamburg Passenger Lists, click here.