We are attempting to track down a family anecdote, to see if other families may share a similar history, or if someone recalls seeing something that matches this story. It is said that, in the early 1750s, perhaps 1753, a Braun family set out from Wurtemburg and sailed for North America via Rotterdam. We only know that the Braun family consisted of a father and five children -- no mention of a wife/mother, but it doesn't mean that she didn't exist. Somewhere en route between Europe and Philadelphia, the father died and was buried at sea. There's no indication as to whether the children were kept together or if they were split up into the German population. We know that at least one of the boys retained the family surname of Braun. One child was probably named Henry, and others may have been George, Daniel, Johann, Samuel, Jacob, Frederick or perhaps Mathias, but there's absolutely no documentary indication of names, only supposition based on descendant names. It's entirely possible that some of them might have been girls. We suspect that our Georg Braun may have been one of those orphaned children. After having submitted a sample for Y-DNA analysis during the early days of that research, we've been without a significant match until now. The E1b1b haplogroup limits the pool of potential matches, so we're quite happy with a surname and a 22/25 match of markers. It happens that the family anecdote derives from the family of the matching individual. We think we might have found our George Brown in York County, married to Catharina Hengst in 1779. It's the same church where marriages occurred in collateral families: Hohl/ Holl/Hull and Lingenfelter. This couple seems to disappear from York Co PA about the same time as a same-named George Brown appears in Virginia. We don't have any illusions that this is anything but pure speculation on our part, but that's usually our starting point. Of course, he might have settled in one of the other counties which welcomed German immigrants. Can anyone help us to unravel this connection, if any? We are happy to share our research information with serious researchers. Jim Patrick Tampa Florida

Hello, I have not posted for awhile and thought I would ask this question to all of you because it is about passenger lists and hey thats what you do here. OK...1) I need to know if anyone can tell me what ship came into Galveston on the 4th of December 1854? I have looked at the Texas seapots website and ordered a microfishe of the Balah book of passanger list, I have looked on ancestry. HELP HELP! I know that there is a chance that I wont find a passenger list but I am hopeful. I am looking for Heinrich Fuhrmeister from Prussia, everything I have indicates he was traveling alone. I was told that there are points of departure that were most common for differant regions of Germany, if this is so what port would be most common for a family leaving Stettin, Germany in 1860? Thank you for any help, if anyone would like me to look on the Microfishe for names I would be more than happy to do so. It is the Albert Balah book of ships coming into Galvestion. Kerry