Ships of Our Ancestors

Ships of Our Ancestors is a compilation of photographs of the steamships that were employed in transporting immigrants to this country in the heyday of mass migration. These were the propeller-driven, steel-hulled leviathans of legend, owned and operated by such famous shipping lines as North German Lloyd, White Star, Cunard, Guion, Red Star, Inman, and Hamburg-American. Photos of nearly 900 ships are arranged here in alphabetical order, and each ship is further identified by date, shipping line, and source. For genealogists the photographs represent a visual testimony of the great passenger ships that grew old in service and then passed from the scene without a trace. They are proof of a bygone time and our connection to it.