GEN-DE-L Archives

From: "Michael Palmer" <>
Subject: HEIDL, 1867 to USA
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 00:21:54 -800

On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, "slo" <> wrote:

> I would appreciate a lookup for:
> Frank Joseph Heidl, b. 1849 Bohemia, travelled alone 1867, age 18,
> to USA (NYC?) Settled in New Jersey.

Ira A. Glazier and P. William Filby, ed., _Germans to America; Lists of
Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports_ (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly
Resources, 1988ff.), vol. 19, p. 64, includes the following name among
the passengers on board the Hamburg American Line steamship HAMMONIA,
Capt. Ehlers, which arrived at New York on 15 March 1867, from Hamburg 2
March, and Southampton 6 March 3 P.M. (passenger manifest dated 16 March
1867):

"Franz Heidel, 21, male, laborer"

The abstracts in _Germans to America_ are notoriously inaccurate. You
should therefore check the published information against the microfilm
copy of the original manifest of arriving passengers, which you will find
in National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, roll 276. You can
borrow a copy of this microfilm roll through AGLL (http://www.agll.com),
any LDS (Mormon) Family History Center (Family History Library microfilm
#0175632), or Interlibrary Loan.

In addition to the New York passenger *arrival* list for the HAMMONIA,
you should also check the Hamburg *departure* list for this same voyage,
as this list may well contain important information--in particular, each
passenger's place of last residence--not usually given in U.S. passenger
arrival lists. The Hamburg Ship Lists (see the account by Jim Eggert and
myself at http://www.genealogy.com/gene/www/emig/ham_pass.html) have been
microfilmed, and you can borrow a copy of the appropriate microfilm roll
through any LDS (Mormon) Family History Center (Family History Library
microfilm #0472898).

The HAMMONIA on which Franz Heidel sailed to New York in 1867 was the
second of three steamships of this name owned by the Hamburg American Line
(HAPAG)--indeed, this was her maiden voyage. The HAMMONIA (II) was built
by Caird & Co, Greenock, and launched on 12 August 1866. 3,035 tons;
103,6 x 12,2 meters/340 x 40 feet (length x breadth); straight bow, 1
funnel, 2 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 12
knots; accommodation for 58 passengers in 1st class, 120 in 2nd class,
and 500 in steerage.

2 March 1867, maiden voyage, Hamburg-New York. [The contemporary New
York newspapers report of the passage: "Had fresh easterly winds the
first 5 days, then changeable winds and weather; lat 45, lon 49, passed a
great number of small icebergs".] 25 July 1877, last voyage,
Hamburg-Havre-New York. 6 June 1878, purchased by the Russian Volunteer
Fleet, and renamed MOSKVA. 6 June 1882, bound from Hankow to St.
Petersburg, wrecked 25 nautical miles off Cape Guardafui, Gulf of Aden,
with no loss of life; the crew and 150 passengers saved themselves on the
coast of Somalia, where on 24 June they were picked up by the British
steamship BAGDAD [Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, _Die Schiffe der
Hamburg-Amerika- Linie_, Bd. 1: 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler, 1979), p. 27
(photograph); Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, _North Atlantic Seaway; An
Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with
the New_ (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol.
1 (1975), p. 389]. Also pictured (same photograph as in Kludas and
Bischoff) in Michael J. Anuta, _Ships of Our Ancestors_ (Menominee, MI:
Ships of Our Ancestors, 1983), p. 119, courtesy of the Peabody Essex
Museum, East India Square, Salem, MA 01970, http://www.pem.org, from whom
you can obtain a high-quality reproduction. I am sending you, by separate
e-mail, a scan, in .JPG format, of this photograph.

Michael Palmer
--
Michael Palmer
Claremont, California

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• HEIDL, 1867 to USA by "Michael Palmer" <>