Maryland Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

=== The People  ===

White settlers in colonial Maryland were primarily from the British Isles. In 1660 many English immigrants began settling the Eastern Shore (east of Chesapeake Bay) in what is now Wicomico County. Nearly all British immigrants to colonial Maryland came either as servants or convicts. Maryland received more indentured servants than any other colony.  

The earlier colonists settled along Maryland's rivers and bays, as these were the primary routes of transportation. By about 1740, English, Scottish, and Scotch-Irish immigrants began moving into the Appalachian section of western Maryland.  

The largest group of non-British persons in the colonial period were Rhineland Germans who were encouraged by Maryland officials to settle in the rich farm lands of western Maryland in the 1730s and 1740s. Many of these Germans came through Philadelphia. A few Dutch, Swedish, Huguenot, and Acadian refugee families also came to the colony.  

Slave labor was introduced in the early decades of the seventeenth century when slaves from Barbados were imported to labor in the tobacco fields of southern Maryland. Vast numbers of Blacks were later shipped directly from Africa to the Chesapeake. Some of these Blacks obtained their freedom. By 1800, Maryland had the largest free Black population in the United States.  

Migrations from Maryland began in the early years of the colony. Travelers generally followed the Cumberland Trail (Braddock Road) that led west to Pittsburgh and from there to the Ohio River. Many people also used the Great Trading Path, also called the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road, that led southwest along the Allegheny Ridge into the Shenandoah Valley and beyond. Some Marylanders from Prince George's County went to the Carolinas. A group of Catholics from St. Mary's County settled in Nelson County, Kentucky. By the 1820s some wealthy young Marylanders were moving slaves from their home farms to open plantations in Mississippi and surrounding areas.  

Southerners fleeing the devastation of the Civil War and new immigrants from overseas helped to offset population losses. During the heavy period of immigration from 1830 through 1860, approximately half the immigrants were Germans, and a third were Irish. These immigrants tended to remain in the cities, especially Baltimore City, Maryland.  

In the 1870s and 1880s virtually all immigrants were of German origin. In the post-1880 wave of immigration, large numbers of Germans continued to come to Maryland. They were joined by Poles, Bohemians, Lithuanians, Greeks, Jews (from Germany, Poland, and Russia), Czechs, Italians, and Irish.  

Histories of ethnic groups are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under MARYLAND - MINORITIES. An example is:  

The "[[Portal:United States Emigration and Immigration|Emigration and Immigration]]" section of the United States Research Outline lists several important sources for finding information about immigrants. These nationwide sources include many references to people who settled in Maryland. [[Portal:Tracing Immigrant Origins|Tracing Immigrant Origins]] introduces the principles, search strategies, and additional record types you can use to identify an immigrant ancestor's hometown.  

The following types of records can help you identify an ancestor who arrived in Baltimore City, Maryland between 1820 and 1891:  

=== '''Indexes of German Immigrants'''.  ===

There is an ongoing project to index an estimated 700,000 Germans who arrived at various U.S. ports including Baltimore City. The first volumes have been published in:  

The National Archives has the immigration passenger lists and indexes of Baltimore City since 1892. The Family History Library has microfilm copies of:  

The National Archives also has four volumes of lists of passengers who died on board ship from 1867 to 1914.  

Baltimore was served by the North German Lloyd shipping line from Bremen. If you know the name of the steamship that your ancestor arrived on, you can obtain the date of arrival for the years 1904 to 1926 from the:  

:Immigrants to Maryland, especially western Maryland, may have arrived in Philadelphia (see the [[Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Research Outline]]). <!--{12032062387304} --><!--{12032062387305} --><!--{12032062387306} --><!--{12032062387307} --><!--{12032062387308} -->