Looking for possible route from East Prussia to Middlesbrough c.1890

[hughmett]

my gt grandfather,Otto Mett, somehow travelled from east prussia to middlesbrough to work in steel works (Dorman Long). which port could he have landed at? Hull? Newcastle?

also he was lodging with an established immigrant family of Germans(pork butchers) so could he have been sponsored?

sadly he wasnt naturalised so no documentation there.

regards
Hugh Mett

[GreySquirrel]

Tough question.

In all likelihood, he would have come from Bremerhaven or Hamburg to London and travelled north overland. However, there are of course plenty of other Baltic and North Sea ports at either end.

Have you tried contacting the Anglo-German FHS? They have excellent records and would have the best experience in suggesting the most likely route taken.

[bongo ali]

Hi,

My GGFather was German and I know very little about him - but one of the things I know for sure is that he was a Pork Butcher.  He was born in approx 1871 (don't know where), and my Nana told me that he came over to Middlesbrough on a cattle ship (what we'd probably call illegal immigration these days!) with his brother.  Nana thought he may have worked in the ship yards until he picked up his butchering again.

I can follow him around the North East until his death in the 1930's in Stockton - he married an English woman (two infact as his first wife died) and brought up a family here.

I'm desperately searching for info on him and I wondered if you could share any of the 'established' butchers info you have? Just incase there could be an elusive link for me!

My GGFather's name was Henry Cutts - but I don't even know if this was his real name or his anglicised version.

Thanks,
Alison

[bongo ali]

Hi Hugh,

I'm searching for my GGF (poss German, Prussian or Russian!), who I believe arrived at a NE port and was a pork butcher.  I've had no luck on the searches using the passenger lists on the UK Ancestry website.

However, tonight I chanced using the German equivalent Ancestry website (www.ancestry.de)  by just typing in the surname of my GGF.

Unbelievably, I got a result, which shows a boat leaving Hamburg and its route is to go to West Hartlepool, going onto Liverpool, then onto New York. It shows the boat's name, age of passenger, date of arrival etc; and if you pay to click onto the actual document, and if you can decipher the horrendous handwriting, there's other info too.  It could be my GGF (if he's changed his first name - all other details tally)

To double check, I opened a simultaneous web window and searched for the person on the Ancestry UK website, using the additional info from the German site (age, date of arrival, name of ship etc), and then the UK website also found him.

You mightn't find your relative the same way, but at least it shows boats went from Hamberg direct to Hartlepool, even if it was just a pit-stop.

Good Luck,
Alison

[sillgen]

Hi Alison
Hugh has not been on rootschat for some years so may not pick up your reply.  I found it very interesting though as I also have an ancestor who was possibly from Hamburg and came over to the north east.   Unfortunately his anglicised name was Henry Brown and assuming that was orginally Braun there are far too many entries!
Regards
Andrea