HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GERMAN MIGRATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Population increased rapidly in Germany during the period of relative stability that followed the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. Although German-speaking immigrants had been coming to the United States since the middle of the eighteenth century, the number of German arrivals in a single year did not exceed 10,000 until 1832. The numbers increased rapidly thereafter, reaching 60,000 in 1846,150,000 in 1852, and 196,000 in 1854.(2) Immigration declined during the period of the Civil War but revived between 1866 and 1873,decreased slightly during the depression of the later 1870s, and rose to its high point between 1880 and 1885.

German emigration to the United States, prior to the 1830s, had come almost exclusively from southwest Germany,Wurtemberg, Baden,Bavaria, and the Rhineland-Palatinate, which were the areas of greatest demographic increase. This was a region predominantly of small farms, in which inheritance laws resulted in the equal division of family property among the surviving children. This combined with the effects of peasant emancipation, resulted in a steadily declining economic base for much of the increasing population. German industry had not developed sufficiently to enable urban areas to absorb the surplus population, thereby providing a stimulus overseas migration.

In the 1840s emigration spread to northwest Germany. Although this was an area characterized by more sizable landholdings, the local textile industry was unable to compete with English imports, and industrial and agricultural depression forced unemployed artisans,tenant farmers, and agricultural laborers to emigrate. By the 1850s peasant emancipation in the eastern and northeastern parts of Germany, Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and East Prussia led to the dispossession of former serfs from the great estates,(3) and to large-scale emigration of peasants and artisans after 1865.(4) Although the population of the German states doubled between 1840 and 1910, from 32.8 million to 64.9 million, emigration carried off approximately one third of this increase.(5) The great exodus between 1847 and 1855 was the result of a combination of crop failures, the increase in the price of food, famine, political instability, and the general decline in the standard of living of a predominantly rural population.

German overseas emigration falls into two phases in the nineteenth century. Between 1815 and 1865 families of small farmers, artisans, and tradesmen from the southwest and agricultural laborers from the northwest left Germany in search of cheap land, which was abundant in the United States. Preliminary analysis of data for the period 1850-51 indicates that two thirds of the departures were male and that over 80 percent were either farmers or laborers. Between 1865 and 1895 peasants and unemployed industrial workers, largely from eastern Germany,left the country looking for employment, attracted by the demand for cheap labor during a period of rapid U.S. industrialization that followed the Civil War. The era of massive overseas migration came to an end in the mid-1890s as German industry matured and absorbed surplus agricultural and industrial population.

Bremen and Hamburg served as the primary German ports of embarkation throughout the nineteenth century, but French ports, such as Le Havre,and Antwerp and Rotterdam, in the Low Countries, were also major points of departure.

The most important ports of arrival in the United States were New York, from which the immigrants dispersed via Albany and Troy throughout the western part of the country, and Baltimore and New Orleans, from which they reached the Mississippi. However, the Civil War abruptly ended New Orleans's position as a leading port of entry and its predominance as a commercial center. New railroad routes from the East now ran to St. Louis and the Mississippi River, and therefore many immigrants landing in New York after the war could find direct railroad passage to the Midwest. Philadelphia and Boston, though, remained secondary ports throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century.

JUST A FEW OF STREBE TRAVELERS

Passenger's Name: Gottfried Strebe
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Occupation: Unknown
Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Jun. 26, 1875
Final Destination: USA
Purpose for Travel: Staying in USA
Ship's Name: Oder
Captain's Name: Oterendorp
Manifest ID Number: 33841
Port of Embarkation: Bremen & Southampton
Mode of Travel: Steerage		 Passenger's Name: Clara Strebe
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Occupation: Single
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Jan. 29, 1884
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Gellert
Manifest ID Number: 37616
Port of Embarkation: Hamburg
Passenger's Name: Carl Strebe
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Occupation: Carpenter
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Jun. 11, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Waesland
Manifest ID Number: 21459
Port of Embarkation: Antwerp		 Passenger's Name: Anna Strebe
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Occupation: Single
Last Residence: Helmstadt in Brunswick
Date of Arrival: Jan. 16, 1885
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Bohemia
Manifest ID Number: 38040
Port of Embarkation: Hamburg
Passenger's Name: Friedr. Strebe
Age: 4
Gender: Male
Occupation: Child
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Jun. 11, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Waesland
Manifest ID Number: 21459
Port of Embarkation: Antwerp		 Passenger's Name: Kunig. Strebe
Age: 8
Gender: Male
Occupation: Child
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Jun. 11, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Waesland
Manifest ID Number: 21459
Port of Embarkation: Antwerp
Passenger's Name: Maria Strebe
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Occupation: Unknown
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Apr. 19, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Habsburg
Manifest ID Number: 36035
Port of Embarkation: Bremen		 Passenger's Name: Martha Strebe
Age: 2
Gender: Female
Occupation: Child
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Apr. 19, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Habsburg
Manifest ID Number: 36035
Port of Embarkation: Bremen
Passenger's Name: Carolina Strebe
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Occupation: Unknown
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Apr. 19, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Habsburg
Manifest ID Number: 36035
Port of Embarkation: Bremen		 Passenger's Name: Emil Strebe
Age: 3
Gender: Male
Occupation: Child
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Apr. 19, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Habsburg
Manifest ID Number: 3603
5Port of Embarkation: Bremen
Passenger's Name: Georg Strebe
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Occupation: Unknown
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: Apr. 19, 1881
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Habsburg
Manifest ID Number: 36035
Port of Embarkation: Bremen		 Passenger's Name: Carl Strebe
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Occupation: Merchant
Last Residence: Prussia
Date of Arrival: Aug. 28, 1883
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Hammonia
Manifest ID Number: 39512
Port of Embarkation: Hamburg & Havre Hamburg
Passenger's Name: Bertha Strebe
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Occupation: Daughter
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: May 08, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Kaetie
Manifest ID Number: 36599
Port of Embarkation: Stettin		 Passenger's Name: Carl Strebe
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Occupation: Miller
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: May 08, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Kaetie
Manifest ID Number: 36599
Port of Embarkation: Stettin
Passenger's Name: Friederike Strebe
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Occupation: Woman
Last Residence: Germamy
Date of Arrival: May 08, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Kaetie
Manifest ID Number: 36599
Port of Embarkation: Stettin		 Passenger's Name: Helene Strebe
Age: 5
Gender: Female
Occupation: Child
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: May 08, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Kaetie
Manifest ID Number: 36599
Port of Embarkation: Stettin
Passenger's Name: Otto Strebe
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Occupation: Laborer
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: May 08, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Kaetie
Manifest ID Number: 36599
Port of Embarkation: Stettin		 Passenger's Name: Wilhelmine Strebe
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Occupation: Daughter
Last Residence: Germany
Date of Arrival: May 08, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Kaetie
Manifest ID Number: 36599
Port of Embarkation: Stettin
Passenger's Name: Caroline Strebe
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Occupation: Wife
Last Residence: Prussia
Date of Arrival: Mar. 29, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Westphalia
Manifest ID Number: 36513
Port of Embarkation: Hamburg & Havre		 Passenger's Name: Wilh. Strebe
Age: 57
Gender: Male
Occupation: Laborer
Last Residence: Prussia
Date of Arrival: Mar. 29, 1882
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Westphalia
Manifest ID Number: 36513
Port of Embarkation: Hamburg &
Passenger's Name: Louise Strebe
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Occupation: Single
Last Residence: Prussia
Date of Arrival: Oct. 09, 1883
Final Destination: USA
Ship's Name: Hammonia
Manifest ID Number: 37494
Port of Embarkation		 Passager Name:Carl Strebe
Arrival Date: Aug 11, 1843
Age:11
Gender:M
Port of Arrival:New York
Port of Departure:Bremen
Place of Origin:Deutschland
Ship:Roland
Passenger Name:Georgine Strebe
Arrival Date:Aug 11, 1843
Age:6
Gender:F
Port of Arrival:New York
Port of Departure:Bremen
Place of Origin:Deutschland
Ship:Roland 		Passenger Name:Hanne Strebe
Arrival Date:Aug 11, 1843
Age:12
Gender:F
Port of Arrival:New York
Port of Departure:Bremen
Place of Origin:Deutschland
Passenger Name:Johann Strebe
Arrival Date:Aug 11, 1843
Age:40
Gender: M
Port of Arrival:New York
Port of Departure:Bremen
Place of Origin:Deutschland
Ship: Roland 		Passenger Name: Margareth Strebe
Arrival Date:Aug 11, 1843
Age:44
Gender:F
Port of Arrival:New York
Port of Departure:Bremen
Place of Origin:Deutschland
Ship:Roland
Passenger Name:Ricka Strebe
Arrival Date:Aug 11, 1843
Age: 9
Gender:F
Port of Arrival:New York
Port of Departure:Bremen
Place of Origin:Deutschland
Ship: Roland
Passenger Name:Caroline STREBE
Year of Record:1901
Source:1901 Census of Canada: Province of Quebec
Comments:Immigrated to Canada in 1875
Age: 69
Passenger Name:Fardina STREBE
Year of Record:1901
Source:1901 Census of Canada: Province of Quebec
Comments:Immigrated to Canada in 1875
Age:77
 Passenger Name:Mary STREBE
Year of Record:1901
Source:1901 Census of Canada: Province of Quebec
Comments: Immigrated to Canada in 1875
Age:30

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