My Immigration History.

My maternal grandfather, Joseph Starke, immigrated to the US from Germany at the age of 15. He came with his parents, Heinrich and Anna Starke, and 7 of his siblings in 1908. My great grandparents are pictured. The family sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany to Galveston, Texas on a ship named the Chemnitz. The crossing took 8 days. While New York’s Ellis Island is the most famous immigration port, there were over 70 others.

Galveston was a major port for the Gulf of Mexico. One of his sister’s wrote a detailed account of their crossing. A partial excerpt of that letter follows.