Von: brucenoe@cybercable.tm.fr (Bruce NOE)
  Datum: 21.09.98, 05:30:29
Betreff: Re: Ports of Departure.

John L Maurath wrote:
>
> Can anyone please tell me,  which port would a family from Baden have
> taken to go to America, and what route would they have taken to get to
> that port between the years 1821 and 1833?   Thank you.
>

For the period 1821-1833, most people from Baden took a boat down the
Rhine River to the port of Rotterdam. With the appearance of the
railroad in Europe, beginning in 1830, train travel was increasingly a
part of their travel route, which made the ports of Bremen and Le Havre
the most popular ports.

Here is a translated excerpt from a recent book about a village in Baden
in 1851. The book is titled "Bettlesmann Umkehr", by Robert Bartczak and
Charles von Monteton, Mannheim 1997. The description is based on
newspaper articles and archival records from 1851.

The Trip

     On the morning of March 11, 1851 the people of Ferdinandsdorf were
called to depart, knowing that they were turning their backs on their
home for evermore. The 47 emigrants rode in 5 two-horse wagons to
Eberbach, where all of the Odenwald emigrants were collected. For the
inhabitants of the villages along the Neckar, it must have been a moving
moment to observe this farewell scene, as more than 200 people became
homeless.  Shortly before the departure of the ships, the proceeds of
the public collection were distributed among the emigrants.
     The boatman Ludwig Hauck transported the group at a price of 10
Kreuzen per person. In the company of Deacon Hormuth from
Strümpfelbrunn, the emigrant group arrived in Neuenheim near Heidelberg,
where they were put up for the night of March 11th.  The last stage on
their native ground of Baden came on the next day on the way to
Mannheim. At noon the emigrants found themselves at the central
collecting point, the guesthouse "Zum Rheintal", across from the
principal customs office. Although the spring high water on the Neckar
had caused some disturbances shortly before, the ride to Mannheim passed
smoothly.
     On the 13th of March the emigrants filed into Mannheim and then
traveled up the Rhine River by steamer-tugboat to Cologne, where they
transferred to a train bound for Bremen. There, the three-masted sailing
ship "Schiller" waited ready. The Schiller soon departed from Bremen and
arrived in New York on the 22nd of April 1851.


Bruce Noé
Strasbourg, France