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:  

=== '''Early Immigrants'''  ===

Good sources for finding early immigrants are:  

::• World Vital Records Index at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=pili www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=pili]

:- Ship Passenger Lists - edited and indexed by Carl Boyer; Newhall, California: Boyer, 1977-80; these books index miscellaneous immigration materials. 

::• Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Charleston (South Carolina), 1820-1829  

:Customs passenger lists of Baltimore City were kept beginning in January 1820, but most of the early lists are missing and were reportedly destroyed by a fire. The Family History Library has the following records in one collection on Family History Library films beginning at 417383.

::Baltimore City lists for 4 September 1833 to 13 June 1866 (with some gaps). During these years, ship masters were required to submit copies of their passenger lists to the mayor of Baltimore. These city lists partially replace the missing original lists.  

::Cargo manifests from 2 September 1820 to 30 March 1821 and 19 August 1832.

:::These quarterly abstracts or copies give the quarter-year of an individual's arrival and sometimes the port of embarkation. Passengers' given names are usually shortened to the initial letter, but otherwise the information is the same as that found in the original lists. Use the abstracts when the original list is missing. The abstracts also have many gaps, and some years are missing. The Family History Library has the abstracts for the following years (Family History Library films [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=65295&disp=Passenger+lists+of+vessels+arriving+at+B++ 1376177]-82):

::::January 1820 to December 1845  

::::March 1857 to June 1869

:::- Indexes to the quarterly abstracts. There are two indexes to the abstracts. Those up to 1834 are indexed in:

:• Soundex card index for 1897 to 1952. (On 43 Family History Library films beginning with [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=291580&disp=Index+%28Soundex%29+to+passenger+lists+o++ 1373824].)

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: