Hamburg Passenger List - 1872
In 1993 the Family History Library staff and missionaries made an index to the Hamburg Passenger Lists for the year 1872, supervised by Sonja Nishimoto. This was one of the years with especially high number of German emigrants leaving. Indexing the passenger lists for 1872 was a trial project to see how much time and effort it would take. Although they finished the project, they decided not to continue the project at that time.
The resulting index was printed and bound into four volumes, which can be found at the Family History Library (FHL book 943.515/H1 W39h, film 1183696 Items 3-6). Since this index is only available to those who know about it or those who happen across it at the library, it is not used as much as it could be. It is hoped that by putting it on this site, it will become more accessible to more people.
This index is compiled from four microfilms of original Hamburg Passenger lists for the year 1872, including both the direct (traveling directly to the destination) and indirect (traveling by way of England or another port) lists. Because of complications in interpretation, it was decided not to include the place of origin in this index, however that information is available on the passenger lists. If you find your ancestor in this list, you should find the nearest Family History Center and order copies of the original index on microfilm to identify the town. The film numbers to order are as follows (and the page numbers are in the index):
| Abbreviation | Film Number | Film Contents |
| A | FHL film 0,472,903 | Direct List from Jan-Jun 1872 |
| B | FHL film 0,472,904 | Direct List from Jul-Dec 1872 |
| C | FHL film 1,049,012 | Indirect List from Mar-Jul 1872 |
| D | FHL film 1,049,013 | Indirect List from Aug-Dec 1872 |
In order to find the place of origin of your ancestor, you must go to the film indicated and turn to the page listed in the last column of this index. On the film the place of origin is listed in the column marked "Geburtsort". Use a gazetteer to interpret the place name and determine the state or province or country it is in. Since the vital records in Europe were compiled by the churches, it is also of great importance that you know your ancestor's religion and determine the parish which had jurisdiction over the specific locality found in the passenger list.
Since this index is so large and from experience with the gazetteers, how it slows down the whole system to have such large files, I have tried breaking this file up into several parts alphabetically by surname. Perhaps this still isn't broken down far enough but I'll give it a try and see how it works. Following are the links to these files. Choose the one your surname falls into:
