Hello Wolf and the "German Passenger - Lists" members. Thanks for your invitation to the list. Here is a short story to introduce myself. My name is Earl John Specht, and at present I live in Zwaag, in the Netherlands. I was born on the Mojave Desert in southern California in 1941 and have lived my life in California, Texas, Georgia, Washington DC, Frankfurt, Vietnam, Naha Okinawa, and now in The Netherlands since 1971. My Uncle Bob and I have been researching our 'Specht' family history for quite some time now. We have gathered much data over the years, but have been baffled many times at the faults and incorrect data preserved by our forefathers, and secondly all of our San Francisco history was gravely lost in the 1906 earthquake, or rather the fire that occurred after the earthquake which totally destroyed the historical records of the city. A little about what we do know about our history. My GF Henry was born in San Francisco in 1878, and he and his father Johann (John Henry) moved to the Mojave Desert in 1894 (Lancaster, California). This is where my father (John L.) was born and died, and where I grew up. John Henry (GGF) grew up in San Francisco, but was born in Philadelphia, the city to where his father emigrated to from Baden, Germany. John Henry's father, Jacob Friedrich was born in 1826/7 in Baden, and was first found on the 1850 Philadelphia Census. He was then 23 years old. About Jacob: Jacob learned the brewing business in one of the Specht Breweries in Philadelphia at the time (we think) and left Philadelphia in late 1853 for San Francisco, where we find him in an 1854 City Business Directory as the proprietor of the San Francisco Brewing Company. He remained there for a number of years, but we believe he left San Francisco for a short trip back to Germany and later returned to Philadelphia in the 1870's. We have the census in Philadelphia (Jacob 23, Margaretha 21) and the 1860 San Francisco Census (Jacob 33, Margaret 31, John H. 8) showing correct dates. They appear to have been born in 1827 (Jacob) and 1829 (Margaretha). We have not been able to find a shipping list for Jacob or his wife, Margaretha (who married in 1850 according to the census). We don't know in which year he left Baden for Philadelphia, only that he was there in 1850. We do believe he was backed by either his family in Germany, who could have been wealthy, or by the Specht Brewery in Philadelphia, because emigrating to the USA, living for a few years in Philadelphia, moving to California, and creating a business there (a brewery takes a lot of cash to start up) which would take a large amount of money. We have found one shipping list that somewhat agrees to the two names is from the Utica, which left from the port of Havre, destination Pennsylvania in 1846. The Jacob there is listed as 31 years old, the Marguerite Specht listed as age 19. If the age of Jacob was incorrectly listed as 31, but was in fact 21, it could be our ancestors. Although I have seen the original shipping list, and there is no doubt that the age there was written as 31. But of course there were not many documents back then, maybe the listing was made verbally. Data: Jacob Friedrich Specht (born +/- 1827, date died unkown) Emigrated before 1850 from Baden to Philadelphia Wife Margaretha ? (born +/- 1829, date died unkown) John Henry Specht (born 1851 Philadelphia) Henry P. Specht (born 1878 SF) John L. Specht (born 1916) German Emmigration data. We are NOT sure that one of these is our ancestor, but some data items do match up. (there was a John Specht living with Jacob Specht in the 1850 Philadelphia Census) Emigration from Southwest-Germany Emigrant identification First name Last name Emigration year Continent Last place of residence gemeindeschluessel 4930 Johannes Specht 1850 North America Lichtenwald 08116037 252411 Jakob Specht 1850 North America Sinsheim 08226085 252412 Johann Specht 1850 North America Sinsheim 08226085 I am hoping that someone might have more data concerning these people. Thanks