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Archiver > GEN-DE > 1998-03 > 0888752274


From: "Michael Palmer" <>
Subject: Re: Germany>NY>1884
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 03:37:54 -800


On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, wrote:

> Name of ancestor: Hans Heinrich Christopher Besthorn, Born 2/27/1835,
> age at emigration 49 years, Individuals traveling with ancestor-wife
> Meta Maria and four children, Country of Origin Germany, Port of Entry
> New York, Year of emigration 1884

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. 49, p. 26, includes the following family group
among the passengers on board the Hamburg American Line steamship
HAMMONIA, Capt. Schwensen, which arrived at New York on 17 May 1884
(passenger manifest dated 19 May 1884), from Hamburg via Le Havre, 13
days:

Besthorn, Hans, 48, male, farmer
Marie, 46, female
Elisabeth, 8, female
Wilh[elm], 7, male
Herm[ann], 6, male

The published information differs from your information on a number of
points. However, as you may be aware, 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 476. 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 #1027046), 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 #0472922).

The steamship HAMMONIA was built by J & G Thomson, Glasgow (ship no.
188), and launched on 13 September 1882 for the Hamburg American Line
(HAPAG), the third of three steamships of this name owned by the line.
She was built as HAPAG's response to Norddeutscher Lloyd's express
teamship ELBE. 4,227 tons; 113,7 x 14,0 meters (length x beam); straight
bow, 2 funnels, 3 masts; steel construction, screw propulsion, service
speed 15.2 knots; accommodation for 150 passengers in 1st class, 100 in
2nd class, 700 in steerage; crew of 125. 28 February 1883, maiden
voyage, Hamburg-Havre- New York. 10 November 1889, last voyage,
Hamburg-Southampton-New York. 1889, purchased by the Compagnie G'en'erale
Transatlantique (CGT, or French Line), and renamed VERSAILLES. 1914,
scrapped at Genoa [Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, _Die Schiffe der
Hamburg- Amerika-Linie_, Bd. 1: 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler, 1979), p.
42 (2 photographs); Nigel 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. 393]. Also pictured 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, scans, in .JPG format, of the two
photographs in Kludas and Bischoff.

Michael Palmer
--
Michael Palmer
Claremont, California

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