"The original passenger lists for 1850 through 1893, prepared by shipping agents and ships' officers, are now deposited at the Temple-Balch Institute's Center for Immigration Research in Philadelphia and are reproduced chronologically in these volumes by date of each ship's arrival" -- Foreword. "The two main German ports of embarkation were Bremen and Hamburg, where German officials prepared lists of emigrants. ...The great majority of immigrants...

Some of the earliest German-speaking immigrants to the American colonies came from a region in present-day Germany known as Pfaltz, or the Palatinate area. Their people were called Palatines. The Palatines to America organization (Pal-Am) promotes the study of ancestral migration from the Palatine and other Germanic-speaking areas, such as Austria, France, Poland, and Switzerland. Some came to America indirectly, spending time (often generations)...