They may not have been "sponsored" by relatives or previous emigres, but there were other ways to acquire the resources to immigrate. In Everett Dick's The Sod-House Frontier 1854-1890 he discusses how the railroads would pay for Eastern Europeans' passage to the New World. The railroads had been given incredible amounts of land by the government in return for finishing the railroad, but the land was unused (no market) and there was nothing to ship on the rails; so they kind of created a market. The railroads would even let the immigrants live in the railroad cars for a while after arriving. ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.