New England

The largest community of Germans to New England was the settlement of the village of Broad Bay in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, now called Waldoboro, Maine. The proprietor of this colony, Samuel Waldo, brought over four ship-loads of Germans to settle his property and gave them grants of land in the years 1742, 1751-1753. These Germans found it difficult to survive on farming and with the hostile Indian neighbors, those who remained eventually turning to shipping and fishing industries. They had close ties with their Boston and Nova Scotia German neighboring communities, and a large group of Moravians in the colony later moved to North Carolina.

The following four passenger lists of original colonists to the Broad Bay colony were originally made and published in the book, Broad Bay Pioneers by Wilford W. Whitaker and Gary T. Horlacher (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 1998). If you find any of your family names on these passenger lists, please consult this book as there is a short genealogical section on each family giving their origins in Germany and first couple generations in America, as well as fairly extensive background on the German emigration to New England, passage expenses, travel routes, etc., etc.

[NOTE: At the request of Picton Press, who holds publishing rights to the book, Broad Bay Pioneers, I have removed the above four reconstructed ship lists from this website. If you are interested, please consult them in their published book which can be ordered from their website.]

There may have been other ships to New England that were not destined specifically for the Broad Bay German colony. If lists of these German ships can be identified, they can be added to this site in the future. Ships carrying Germans arrived in Boston from Hamburg, New York, and Philadelphia. At least the following can be mentioned as a possibility. Hopefully this can be added to by others who have further information: