I am interested in this port of departure discussion. My great great Grandfather Andreas (Andrew) Kehl from Storndorf a tiny village in the county (Kreis) of Alsfeld and in Hesse Darmstadt and three of his siblings and possibly his father came to the United States but apparently not together but at different times around 1854. I have not found the ship that my great great grandfather came on but someone found for me what appears to be his sister Margaretha (Margaret)age 16 (or was it 18)on a ship's passenger list along with a number of other young women traveling with an older woman. They were listed as being from Hesse Darmstadt and the ship left out of LeHavre, France. I have misplaced my e-mails on this and need to find this reference again. I did post an inquiry one time listing the young women traveling with Margaretha Kehl and asking if they were familiar to anyone...perhaps on this list. At any rate, I raised the question: why LeHavre. I was reminded that Germany is much like Illinois...long and not so wide. Going to France was closer that going up to the northern ports. I used to think that all the people coming out of Germany went to the port of New York or somewhere in that vicinity and spent hours looking for them on microfische and cards in the National Archives...Later found another great great grandfather Folkert W. Gerdes from Ostfreisland in Northern Germany on a passenger list of a ship coming in at the port of New Orleans in Nov 1857 and going on up the river there to Illinois where he settled. The ship that Margaretha Kehl came on from LeHavre also came in at New Orleans. Betty > HESSE-D Digest Volume 03 : Issue 190 > > Today's Topics: > #1 Re: [HESSE] Port of Antwerp [DmRice@aol.com] > #2 Re: [HESSE] Port of Antwerp [<7iron@gmx.de>] > > Administrivia: > To unsubscribe from HESSE-D, send a message to > HESSE-D-request@rootsweb.com > that contains in the body of the message the command > unsubscribe > and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software > requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. NEVER hit your > reply button to unsubscribe. > > Web Site for HESSEN, GERMANY, is at > http://members.cox.net/hessen/index.htm > > Many towns in Germany have the same name! Add the 5-digit > zip code in front of the name! Zip codes explained, > http://members.cox.net/hessen/index.htm > > To unsubscribe or to look for old messages, go to: > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/HESSE.html > > > > ______________________________