Germans to America

So you're asking: "What is Germans to America?" (Or perhaps one of you is.)

Germans to America is a series of books which index ship passenger arrival records of German immigrants between 1850 and 1897. Each volume contains a chronological listing of the passenger lists for the year, followed by an alphabetical index of each passenger. One problem: the authors determined who was "German." Many of the volumes included only ships where 80% of the passengers were deemed to be German.

There are approximately 70,000 names in each volume. The following information is generally given for each passenger: name, age and sex; and when given: occupation, country or province of origin, village of residence (most say "unknown"), and destination (many say "unknown" or simply "US"). Also listed is the name of the ship, date of arrival, and ports of departure and arrival. The amount of information given may vary for each listing. I recently read a critique that gave examples of passenger lists that included the village of origin, but if the authors could not decipher the name they used "unknown."

You will find people who listed their country of residence as Germany, Prussia, Bavaria, or numerous other German states (like Baden, Hesse, Saxony, Brandenburg, etc). Passengers from Switzerland, France and Luxembourg are also sometimes included. You will generally not find passengers from Austria, Hungary or other nearby areas. 
Despite errors and some omissions, Germans to America can still be a helpful research tool for tracking down German immigrant ancestors, and finding the ship passenger list. This set of books has now been added to the family search database.