In a message dated 03/20/02 7:15:32 PM, [email protected] writes: << One very interesting printed source is found at the Edwardsville Public Library, genealogy dept: It is the multi-volume set "Germans to America: Lists of Passenger Arriving at US Ports 1850-1855", edited by Ira A Glazier & P William Filby. As the title suggests, it contains transcripts of passenger lists of ships arriving at various ports during these years. It names the ship, ports of departure and arrival, dates, and passengers and whatever info was in the list, usually including ages and occupations. There are additional volumes for later years as well. Each volume has a complete index of all individuals named within. >> Germans to America is found in most large libraries and some smaller ones all over the country. You get "sources" only if you know the names and dates of your own ancestors, because there are 100,000's of entries in those volumes, from EVERYWHERE in Germany. With respect to the original question: > My Solter family came to Madison County from Prussia in 1856. Were there > sponsors for immigrants? Did they make connections with specific places in > Germany to bring immigrants to Madison County? Is there a particular area in > Germany which is heavily represented in Madison County? > I'd be interested in that too. We have Biesterfeldts well documented from Spitzerdorf, now in Wedel, German, just west of Hamburg. We have Borchward(t) PROBABLY, but not documented from Mecklenburg, a region east of Hamburg. Both the Biesterfeldts and Borchwardts arrive about 1870 "from Prussia." One other suggestion is to check out the St. John's United Church of Christ on Nameoki Ave., in Granite City. It was filled with Germans, so much so that they kept the records in old German up until WW I. We've been there, but I don't have a personal sense of any particular geographic area that the parishioners came from. We were so busy looking for our own particular folks that we never thought to ask the general area of origin question. Sincerely, ================================ Don Dickason Searching for family names: Dickason, Hamilton, Cadwal(l)ader, Wisely, Steinberg, Borchward(t), Biesterfeld(t), Blair