Have you explored the migration of European ancestors in your family tree? On November 9 at 5 pm Pacific, I’m presenting my new webinar, The Migration of European Ancestors: Their Experiences and the Records. You can register below for this free webinar:

Migration of European Ancestors Departures

One immigrant wrote, “The immigrant station on the outskirts of the city of Hamburg is a model. It is not a huge barrack, like the one at Fiume [now Rijeka, Croatia], but a model village or city, walled and guarded. The new arrivals come in one way, are examined, ticketed, washed, fumigated and fed. 

HAPAG (Hamburg-Amerikanische Paketfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft) had a monopoly on passages between Hamburg and the U.S. Between 1850 and 1939, more than five million European emigrants fleeing poverty, political, and/or religious persecution departed from Hamburg. Thousands of Russian Jews, Austro-Hungarians, and Germans, arrived in the port city every week.

By 1901, HAPAG had improved upon an earlier processing center to create a model emigration station, or Auswandererhallen, on the Elbe island of Veddel.

HAPAG expanded and improved the site to manage the growing tide of emigrants from Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Romania, and other countries of eastern and southern Europe who awaited passage to the U.S.

Join me to learn more about the voyages and the records of our European immigrant ancestors. (PS – there’s a new ebook too!)