A9. Immigrant Ships: Transatlantic Immigration to the United States

In the centuries before air travel, sailing ships and then steamships   brought as many as 50 million people to the New World – the biggest mass migration in history. Each week we will look at one period of immigration, focusing on a particular ship of that period.  The great ocean liners such as Titanic were bankrolled by the tremendous immigrant traffic.  We will look at conditions for immigrants travelling in Steerage or Third Class. Besides looking at overall conditions, each week we will feature some individual immigration stories – where they came from, the ship they sailed on, their life in the New World.  We will aid class members in researching family history. When researching family history, the name of the immigrant ship can be the first step to understand the world of the immigrant.

David Nevard grew up in suburban Boston and has always been fascinated by history – especially World War II and the postwar era. He attended UMass-Amherst and worked as an IT professional for over 30 years. Since retirement, David has been an instructor at WISE and other area lifelong learning programs. His courses include The Worcester Tornado; Suburbia; New York World’s Fair; Displaced Persons after World War II; the Berlin Wall; and Operation Paperclip, and the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.