The passenger list, 1888, Gehrkes to Hawaii

Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #39 from We Tree, reads: Did your ancestors come by boat? Talk about the documentation that records their departure and arrival.

Many of my ancestors were here by 1750, so I don't have many passenger lists.  I have not found many for Man's ancestors either, but there is this one, which is very special. 

This is the passenger list for the J. C. Pfluger, 1888.  The ship left Bremerhaven and arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Karl and his family would then travel to Kauai where he worked at the Lihue Plantation, a sugar plantation.

Karl most likely came to Hawaii as a "contract" laborer, the most common contract was for a 4 year term, working 26 days  month, 10 hours a day.  In return the laborer received his and his families fare from Germany to Hawaii, pay starting at $16.00 a month, less the $6.00 a month which was deducted for rations.  The rations included 10 pounds of beef, 12 pounds of wheat flour, 2 pounds of raw sugar, 1/2 pound of tea or coffee.   The laborer also received free lodging and the use of 1/2 acre of land.

Karl and his family stayed in Hawaii for about 16 years, moving on to California (they lived in Oakland Township, Alameda County, California at the time of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906).  Two ship manifests were found for this move, as Karl went first in October of 1904, and Charlotte and 5 children moved in November of the same year.

The family, except for the eldest daughter who chose to stay in Hawaii for the rest of her life, eventually migrated to the thumb area of Michigan.

I published a book on this family in 1997.  For more information, please contact me.
.