German Emigration Database
Formerly Titled Bavaria & Pfalz Emigration Database
Database updated 17 Aug 2021, with almost 17,000 additional names. Total now is over 149,500.
You can find the name of the town your German ancestors emigrated from by using this Database.
The German Emigration Database has been compiled from emigration
notices printed in newspapers. Printing the notice gave the newspaper readers
plenty of time to put in a claim if they were owed money by the person
leaving.
The database has a few records from as early as 1823, but most of records are from 1832 to 1873.
Once
you have found the person of interest to you in the database, you can
order a free digital copy of the article in which they appear by
emailing the address below. Send the person’s name along with the
entire data line (exactly as shown, including any letter shown with the
year) and your E-mail address. Please use the "Printer-friendly" button link to copy the resulting text that you want to send for a translation.
You can also order a translated copy of the entire newspaper article, which entails a translation fee. Since these newspaper articles are of different lengths the cost of translation cannot be determined until our translator has examined the article.
To order by E-mail click here or send to ggg1database@gmail.com; or by postal mail send to: GGG, 98 Stone Lane, Levittown, NY 11756.
Once you know the town name you can find where it is located in Germany by entering the name of the town in maps.Google.com as (name of town), Germany. If you don’t get a good hit, try searching for the town name at https://www.meyersgaz.org/ .
If you find your ancestor’s town please let us know that our web site helped you by sending us an E-mail
Records Search: German Emigrants
Please note that the Surname (e.g. Last Name) is a required entry field. But since exact spellings are not always known, to aid your search we offer three different ways to specify Surnames...
- Exact Match ("is exactly") - This is the default surname search method.
- Soundex ("sounds like") - This option enables you to specify a surname spelling it out as best you can, and it will return results that "sound" similar to what you spelled out.
- Wild Card - With this option you can replace part of the surname with a * to match any number of letters, or _ to match a single letter. So for example, Sch* will return all names starting with Sch. Similarly, Schl_tz might return results such as Schlitz or Schlotz.
NOTE: The wild card option applies ONLY to the surname. You can just enter the fist few letters of a First Name; the search automatically adds a wild card to the end of the First Name.
NOTE: The wild card option applies ONLY to the surname. You can just enter the fist few letters of a First Name; the search automatically adds a wild card to the end of the First Name.
For whichever of the above surname search options you would like to use, simply select the appropriate radio button option below the input field on the form.
See the "About Database" page for instructions on ordering a translation of any article of interest.Please use the "Printer-friendly" button link to copy the resulting text that you want to send for a translation.
