In the first part of this blog series we reviewed a German immigrant’s voyage from Europe to New York City. In this second part we will review what happened to immigrants once they reached the port of New York.

Castle Garden was New York’s first immigration station. The station welcomed over 8 million immgrants between 1855 and 1891. This station was located on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. In 1855 it became the first Emigrant Landing Depot in the United States. Ellis Island became the new immigrant processing center on January 2, 1892 when Castle Island closed.

On the 7th of December 1857, the Daleidens walked down the board walk from their sailing ship, the E.C. Scranton, to enter the Castle Garden building, where the immigration officials processed them for entry into the country. They were on American soil.

The Daleidens were among 268 passengers on board the Scranton. The ship’s captains gave custom official a manifest listing of all the passengers. The lists were very simple in terms of the information provided for each passenger: name, age, sex, occupation, place of origin and final destination for each passenger was listed. The Daleiden name was spelled: “Dahleiden“. Daleidens listed on this List include: Christoph (my great great grandfather) 20 years of age, his father Mathias 53, his brother Peter 17, and his two sisters both named Barbara were 22 and 13. Christopher and his father list their occupations as “farmers”. They list “Prussia” as their nation of origin and their destination as Illinois.

Missing from this list was Michael Daleiden. Michael arrived on the 17th of October 1856 on the sailing ship the David Hoadly. Michael is listed as 18 years of age. Michael was amongst a total of 161 passengers on board the Hoadly. The two ships carrying the Daleidens sailed from the Port of Antwerp.

Finding Michael on this passenger list was important. We have a document in our hands that shows Michael Daleiden was in America on a certain date with the remainder of his familying following him a little over a year later in 1857.

How did the family get to American and how did they get to Chicago and to Winfield Township in Dupage County Illinois. While I do not have any letters nor diaries documenting the trip I was able to locate several family histories via the Family Search website and the LDS Library in Salt Lake City Utah.

One genealogy titled: Lies Family Centennial and Re-Union: Centennial of Anna Neu Lies and John Lies in America (1952). The Lies immigrated to America in 1852 and settled in the Aurora, Illinois area. They have a familial connection to a Daleiden family of the City of Aurora. They embarked from the same port as the Daleidens, the Port of Antwerp. In the published Lies Family Genealogy there is a narrative of their trip from their home of Haller in Germany. I suspect that the Daleidens had taken a similar route. Here is a list of the Lies journey and how they arrived to Chicago and the State of Illinois:

–Started out from Haller “Covered wagon style”.

-Arrived in Hosingen to stop over for the first night

–Second day the Lies family reached Pepinster, Belgium, the nearest railroad station. They then traveled by rail to Antwerp.

–They set sail for twenty days for the trans-Atlantic journey in a three mast sailing ship similar to the Daleidens.

–They finally sighted the American shore in the distance.

–Their ship was anchored off shore for two days off Staten Island for inspection.

–Transported via tug boat to New York.

–River steamer up the Hudson River to Albany New York and stayed at the Stienmetz Hotel.

–Next day, they went via Railroad to Buffalo New York.

–Proceded by boat to Detriot Michigan

–Then via Railroad to Chicago.

I now at this point have a gap and questions as to where Michael and the family were for roughly seven years and eight months between the dates and years: 17 October 1856 and 4th May 1864. We have Michael’s Passenger List of 1856. We have a Deed document showing the purchase of 40 acres of land in Winfield Township in DuPage County Illinois in 1864. I will need to spend more time digging to find their whereabouts.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work of Steve Szabados and his book German Immigration to America: When, Why, How, and Where. I liked this book and have quoted extensively from his work in this blog and in part one of this blog. Thanks!