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Rating: 
Summary: A great book for those interested in the Pennsylvania Dutch
Review: A few years back I got curious about my family name (again). I have asked dozens of linguists about this name, and I basically got educated guesses that were wrong. When I finally found the truth, I found that there were two original Puterbaugh immigrant ancestors. Mine was named George Puterbaugh, and he arrived in the U.S. a little while before the American Revolution. The family name has many variations (Butterbaugh, Putterback, Putterbaugh, etc.) -- but they all derive from a German place name, a town named Puderbach in the German Rhine lands. If you have read this far :-) then you probably have some interest in this area of history. If you do, then you should most definitely buy and read this book and pass it on to your children. It's the only book on the subject! It's good! Just as an example: I already knew that George Puderbach arrived in Philadelphia on a ship called the "Two Brothers" whose captain was James Arnott. NOW I also know that Shoemaker and Co. were the merchants who sold old George into indentured servitude. And there is a distinct possibility that old George ran away, because he showed up very soon in nearby Maryland, the most common escape haven for such folks. And the map shows the Great Wagon Road he may have run along! If you're interested in "Pennsylvania Dutch" (i.e. Deutsch = German) genealogy, this book is a MUST!
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Summary: A Definitive Work on a Much Neglected Subject
Review: As an amateur genealogist and family researcher I have had many questions on the mechanics of how my ancestors made their voyage from Nassau (Germany) to Pennsylvania in the 18th Century. Most sources skip over these details. However, to understand the challenge they faced, one must know these details. Wokeck has mastered many documentary sources on both sides of the Atlantic to provide the definative answers to such questions. She also explores how these early mass migrations of Germans and Irish provided a model for the later and better known 19th Century migrations. To understand how we became Americans all of use must understand the immigrant experience. That experience began with the subject of this book: the development of the transportation of European migrants into a successful business enterprise. It began small, sporadic, and experimental and became a mass commercial enterprise which was both efficient and profitable. The text and the cited sources are invaluable. I was exhilarated after reading it. It has renewed my enthusiasm for my research at a time it was in the doldrums. Any person with a 'Palatine' ancestry should consider this a 'must read.'Also recommended: A Tide of Alien Tongues, Marrianne Wokeck (1982)
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Summary: The fascinating mechanics of early immigration.
Review: How did tens of thousands of Germans and Irish arrive in America before the War for Independence? How did they decide on the journey? What factors turned their heads westward instead of to the eastern settlement schemes of Prussia, or the Austrian or Russian empires? Where did they get their advice from? Who led the Germans down the Rhine? How were they collected for trans-Atlantic shipment? Which middlemen profited from (or exploited) the "trade in strangers"? What were the costs of their passage? How were they received in the valley of the Delaware? This scholarly book addresses the earliest trans-Atlantic mass migration to North America - those immigrants from southwestern Germany and northern Ireland who arrived prior to 1775. It answers the above questions and many more. Our immigrant ancestors didn't just jump on a boat one day and arrive in the New World many weeks later without an entire system of personal and commercial contacts, information flows, and market forces to facilitate their passage. The huge influx of Germans prior to the Revolution followed a very complex chain of immigration which ensured that ships sailing to Philadelphia from ports in Holland carried "Redemptioners" rather than mere ballast. This book is primarily focused on their experiences. The later and lesser pre-1775 Irish immigration differed significantly from the German experience both in immigrant composition and geographic mix between the northern counties and the southern counties of Ireland. Elements of the both the German immigrant trade and the Irish immigrant trade prior to the Revolution set the pattern for all later migration in the 1800s. If you have Palatine, Swiss, or other German ancestors who landed in Philadelphia prior to 1775, this work is a fascinating study in understanding what they were up against - the "system" that moved them and the challenges they faced within that system. Using both first-hand accounts and statistical analysis of diverse sources and studies, "Trade in Strangers" is an excellent way to understand early German and Irish immigration into the New World. Its focus is primarily the German immigration into the port of Philadelphia but it does mention why other destinations in America were less successful at attracting these immigrants. The smaller Irish immigration prior to 1775 is dealt with to a lesser extent and is mostly used as contrast for comparison to the simultaneous German immigration. The elements of the system of immigration to America which were to remain constant until at least 1924 are highlighted because they were first used to channel these two early immigrant streams from Germany and Ireland. This is a thoroughly-researched and well-written book. Historians of the American colonial experience, students of immigration, and family historians may all profit from reading this.
Rating:
Summary: The fascinating mechanics of early immigration.
Review: How did tens of thousands of Germans and Irish arrive in America before the War for Independence? How did they decide on the journey? What factors turned their heads westward instead of to the eastern settlement schemes of Prussia, or the Austrian or Russian empires? Where did they get their advice from? Who led the Germans down the Rhine? How were they collected for trans-Atlantic shipment? Which middlemen profited from (or exploited) the "trade in strangers"? What were the costs of their passage? How were they received in the valley of the Delaware? This scholarly book addresses the earliest trans-Atlantic mass migration to North America - those immigrants from southwestern Germany and northern Ireland who arrived prior to 1775. It answers the above questions and many more. Our immigrant ancestors didn't just jump on a boat one day and arrive in the New World many weeks later without an entire system of personal and commercial contacts, information flows, and market forces to facilitate their passage. The huge influx of Germans prior to the Revolution followed a very complex chain of immigration which ensured that ships sailing to Philadelphia from ports in Holland carried "Redemptioners" rather than mere ballast. This book is primarily focused on their experiences. The later and lesser pre-1775 Irish immigration differed significantly from the German experience both in immigrant composition and geographic mix between the northern counties and the southern counties of Ireland. Elements of the both the German immigrant trade and the Irish immigrant trade prior to the Revolution set the pattern for all later migration in the 1800s. If you have Palatine, Swiss, or other German ancestors who landed in Philadelphia prior to 1775, this work is a fascinating study in understanding what they were up against - the "system" that moved them and the challenges they faced within that system. Using both first-hand accounts and statistical analysis of diverse sources and studies, "Trade in Strangers" is an excellent way to understand early German and Irish immigration into the New World. Its focus is primarily the German immigration into the port of Philadelphia but it does mention why other destinations in America were less successful at attracting these immigrants. The smaller Irish immigration prior to 1775 is dealt with to a lesser extent and is mostly used as contrast for comparison to the simultaneous German immigration. The elements of the system of immigration to America which were to remain constant until at least 1924 are highlighted because they were first used to channel these two early immigrant streams from Germany and Ireland. This is a thoroughly-researched and well-written book. Historians of the American colonial experience, students of immigration, and family historians may all profit from reading this.
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