Immigration to America
2
Grandmother Kirmse, said that Julius Kirmse arrived in New York City on board a ship named “Cosmos” (my spelling).
Norma (Kirmse) Rauh unsuccessfully searched for when and where Julius Kirmse arrived in America as is noted in the following entry of a report from the professional genealogist she contracted to search the passenger list microfilm records.
From the report, the search was made for February, 1853 through part of March 1853. I assume this time period was chosen because Julius received his permit to emigrate on 03 Feb 1853 in Altenburg, Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg (See Chapter Julius Kirmse – Permission to Emigrate).
I contemplated starting the task of scanning through the microfilm of passenger lists and then realized that there would be hundreds of passenger manifests containing hundreds of thousands of names for the time period to be searched. According to the United States National Archives and Records Service there are 785 reels of microfilm holding passenger lists of vessels arriving at New York between 1820 and 1897.
Database Search
When I began my search for Julius Kirmse, there were databases being made available on the internet Initially, a search of the available databases yielded no candidate entries for my Julius Kirmse. Then I came across the web site, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild LLC. and on searching for Julius Kirmse found the following:
ISTG Vol 13 – Bark Kosmos
Julius Kirmse 19 m rustic Altenburg Buffalo.
The ship was the Bark Kosmos. The 19 year old male passenger was Julius Kirmse, a rustic (Meaning he is of the countryside) from Altenburg and his destination was Buffalo. This appeared to be the Julius Kirmse that I was looking for.
Passenger list databases have continued to evolve and now a search of Ancestry.com gives:
| Name: | Julius Kirmse |
|---|---|
| Arrival Date: | 22 Apr 1853 |
| Birth Date: | abt 1834 |
| Age: | 19 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Place of Origin: | Altenburg |
| Port of Departure: | Bremen, Germany |
| Destination: | Buffalo |
| Port of Arrival: | New York, New York |
| Ship Name: | Kosmos |
Source Citation:
However, the age of this Julius was listed as 19. My Julius had just turned 18. Julius had obtained an emigration permit, but given the emphasis the Bremen port authorities placed on having completed military duty, maybe Julius increased his age a bit to avoid being held for possible lack of completing his military duty.
Arrival
A search of New York Times archives found this sighting of the Bark Kosmos, Bremen approaching the Port of New York.
The next day the New York Times reports the Bark Kosmos, Bremen had arrived:
The Bark Kosmos, Bremen with ship master Hortsman from the Port of Bremen has arrived after 42 days at sea with merchandise and 197 passengers to Oelrichs and Company.
The date the Bark Kosmos docked was April 22, 1853 – a month after the time period that the genealogist had searched. Apparently the time to travel to the port where Julius boarded a ship