Kisseberth Immigration – 1842
Back in the late 1990s I wrote our Kisseberth immigration story which appears in our 2002 book “Küschwert to Kisabeth” based on the records from Nieder-Kinzig, Germany. These records are from an old book of the village history. It shows a Georg Friedrich Kisseberth I., his wife, two sons and one daughter having left for America in the summer of 1842. The book also shows Georg Friedrich Kisseberth II., his wife, one daughter and two sons also leaving in the same year.
Since 1985 we have searched countless records, microfiche and microfilm reels trying to locate our specific ship passengers list. We suspected that the family emigrated from Germany between April and August 1842 with one brother coming to America ten years prior in 1832.
For the past 23 years our search proved futile. That is until last fall when we visited the Allen County (Indiana) Library (2nd largest genealogical library in the U.S.A.).
In our prior research we knew about the 1842 arrival but did not have specific information on the date and port of arrival and the name of the ship. We
also
didn’t even know the European port. While researching general information on our
family tree we found a microfilm copy of ships arriving in New York Harbor in
the1800s and specifically ships arriving in 1842. There were films for every two
months of the year. We grabbed a few and started searching (probably for the
last time). The first film we hit pay dirt! About two thirds of the way through
this large film we found our ancestors. The person or persons recording this
film had our name indexed wrong. This listing was a prize. It not only had both
the Georg Friedrich Kisseberths, I & II, but also Elizabeth Daum and Georg Konig
(who became George King later). Both of these names married into the Kisseberth
family.The information on the film showed that the group arrived in New York Harbor on July 1, 1842 on the ship “Baltimore.” They left from the port of Le Havre, France.
Briefly what follows is a summary of this recent film.
July 1, 1842 Le Havre, France to New York aboard Ship SS Baltimore.
