In the 1850s, large numbers of people in Germany began to leave their home country to seek a new life in America. In some cases entire villages decided to emigrate together. By the end of the century, nearly six million Germans had settled in the United States. One reason Germans decided to move away was a lack of food. Because doctors had made progress with treating once-deadly diseases, Germany had twice as many inhabitants as only fifty years before. The harvests could no longer feed everyone. Powerful storms and pests also took their toll on crops. Grain and potatoes cost twice as much as they had before. Many people couldn't afford such high prices. Peasant farmers, craftsmen, and wage laborers had the hardest time. They had been able to support themselves by selling homemade goods, but now more and more products were produced--quickly and cheaply--by machines in factories. People didn't think their families would survive if they stayed in their homeland. Today more than fifty million Americans are descended from Germans, making it the largest ancestral group in the United States. City names such as Bingen (in Washington), Hanover (in Pennsylvania), Muenster (in Texas), Karlsruhe (in North Dakota), and Augsburg (in Arkansas) reflect this lineage. Most Americans of German descent speak no German at all. Some, however, not only speak German fluently but have also preserved their regional dialect. Many are curious about their origins and why their ancestors chose to leave home. Let's take a closer look at an immigrant family's journey. It begins in the spring of 1869 in a small village in the Prussian province of Hanover, in the home of Robert and Margarete Peters and their two children: Johannes, who is eight, and Dorothea, who is six. Excerpted from In the New World: A Family in Two Centuries by Christa Holtei, Susi Woofter All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
