Galveston Movement Immigrant Database (GMID)

The database currently contains 3,152 names, although I’m adding new ones all the time. My main sources are the Jewish Immigrants Information Bureau (JIIB) Records, which include lists compiled by managers in Galveston of the immigrants they helped to place from about a third of the arriving ships, and the database Texas, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1963 (TXPL), available on Ancestry. That database searches passenger lists compiled by U.S. Customs officials when the immigrants arrived in Galveston; they were based closely on ship manifests that are no longer available. In addition, the Galveston Immigration Database (GID) is a useful search tool that draws its data from the same passenger lists but with different search and display options. In addition, my srong impression is that the handwritten original documents were interpreted by AI in the Ancestry system, which contains a lot of obviously inaccurate readings. The GID was compiled by human readers, who make fewer mistakes.

Thus far I have catalogued by name the JIIB immigrants on every ship that arrived in Galveston between July 1907, when the movement began, and June 1910, plus those arriving between April and July 1914. I’m working chronologically through those in between. The movement brought one hundred “shipments” of Jewish immigrants; the current list contains the names of the Jewish passengers on nearly half of them, or roughly one third of the total number of immigrants.

I have also done in-depth individualized research on about 300 of the immigrants, gathering data about their lives in America after immigration. This may include information about residences, naturalization, name changes, and dates and places of death. Where such information is available, it is also included in the database, accessible by clicking any immigrant’s name.

The names in the database come primarily from three sources:

1. JIIB Records.
The Center for Jewish History and Ancestry both host online the records of the Jewish Immigrants Information Bureau (JIIB). I have combed this collection, especially the Waldman-Bressler Correspondence files, looking for lists of the immigrants they assisted. This correspondence is extraordinarily thorough and rich, but unfortunately it only exists for the first three years of the movement, after which Morris Waldman departed. For reasons unknown, the remainder of the bureau’s correspondence either does not exist or is not held in the same collection.

Lists of passengers recruited and directed onboard by the European branch of the movement, the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO) contain the immigrants’ names, ages, occupations, and family relationships. I have located these lists for 33 “shipments,” or about a third of the ship departures handled by the ITO.

In Galveston, after JIIB directed the arriving passengers to destinations around the country, the bureau chief (originally Morris Waldman) sent a letter to David Bressler, his supervisor in New York, containing the same information as the ITO lists (often with corrections), plus the cities to which the immigrants were sent. These “destination lists,” as I’ve called them, are the most definitive source for knowing which immigrants from each ship the JIIB handled and where they initially went. Many of the destination lists are also accompanied by correspondence describing the circumstances of particular immigrants. I have destination lists for 35 shipments.

I have found 12 ITO lists for which there is no matching destination list and 12 destination lists for which there is no matching ITO list. In cases where both exist, I have gathered information from the JIIB lists, which were composed later, contain more information, and are more authoritative.

When I add a name to the GMID, I confirm that passenger’s arrival in the Texas Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, available in Ancestry, which displays the original passenger lists created by U.S. customs officials when passengers disembarked in Galveston. This document provides confirmation of a passenger’s name and other identifying information, and it indicates whether that person was admitted or debarred, their birthplace, occupation, destination, and a point of contact (a “friend”) in the U.S. The GMID contains all this information for each immigrant on the JIIB or ITO lists.

Any person named on an ITO or JIIB list, or named in JIIB correspondence, is a Galveston Movement immigrant and doesn’t require further confirmation of their participation in the movement.

2. Texas Passenger List (TXPL).
For the majority of Galveston Movement ships, I have neither an ITO nor a JIIB list. In these cases, I am relying on the Texas Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists (TXPL), accessible on Ancestry, to compile names of passengers on the remaining ships.

Ancestry allows the user to search the TXPL by date of arrival and “Race/Nationality.” It is therefore possible to produce a list of passengers arriving on a particular ship, on a particular date, who are identified as Jewish (Hebrew).

For each ship for which I have no bureau documents, I generate a list of Jewish passengers in this way. I add to the database each name on that list, along with all other relevant information, from the TXPL. Then, because many Jewish immigrants came through Galveston on their own and were not affiliated with the movement, I look for evidence to confirm those that were. In particular, the column in the customs form identifying a “friend in America” provides the following types of evidence:

• If the “friend” is the JIIB (or Jewish Society, Jewish Immigrant Society, JIS, or similar), that is confirmation.

• If a “friend” is named but there is no relationship given (brother, uncle, husband) but simply a name, that is probably the name of the JIIB agent receiving the immigrant; often it’s a name that repeats frequently throughout the records. That is confirmation.

• If the “friend” is Alfred Holt, that is confirmation. Holt was the Galveston representative of the North German Lloyd steamship line, which operated the ships from Bremen to Galveston. When passengers boarded in Bremen and didn’t know anyone in America, company officials often wrote in Holt’s name as their American contact. Holt’s name appears hundreds of times and denotes passengers who had no plans to go anywhere or meet anyone in particular. They might not be movement immigrants, but they probably are, and I count this as confirmation.

• If the “friend” is simply the name of a destination city, I take that as confirmation, since it appears that immigrant wasn’t joining anyone in the country they could name.

• If the “friend” is a person identified as a relative of the immigrant, I search previous entries in the GMID looking for that person in that city. If there’s a match, then it’s a Reunion case. These are typically women with children reuniting with husbands who came previously. Such a match constitutes confirmation the new arrivals are affiliated with the movement.

In the absence of any of these indications, I keep a record of the passenger, who was a Jewish immigrant arriving in Galveston during the Galveston Movement, but I note them as “Unconfirmed” in the Category field.

3. Other sources.
On rare occasions I have entered names into the database on the authority of descendants or historians who can state with certainty that the person was affiliated with the Galveston Movement. I follow the above method of corroborating that fact before entering them. I hope, over time, to complete the process described above so I won’t have to rely on such an anecdotal means of adding names to the list.

I have completed entering names on all the ITO and JIIB lists I have, and I am working chronologically through the arriving ships in the TXPL. As of July 2026, I have logged the passengers on almost half of the ships that arrived during the movement’s operation, but this represents only about a third of the total number of immigrants, since the movement started slowly: the largest shipments were in the later years of its operation.

I update the data presented here each time I finish logging the names of passengers on a ship.

Most entries currently in the GMID display only data available in the TXPL, as described above. My expectation is to conduct detailed genealogical searches for each person in the database, which would provide additional information such as their Chosen Name (the name they used in the United States), Date of Death, Place of Death, and a picture. Thus far I have conducted such work on only about 500 of the immigrants and have positively identified just 341 in subsequent records. What information I have found is included in the GMID, but data of this type is minimal as of now.

The following items appear in the default table:

• Last Name, First Name: In most cases, these appear as spelled in JIIB records or, if those don’t exist, in the Texas Arriving and Departing Passenger List (TXPL).
• Chosen Name: The name the person adopted during their life in America, either by “Americanizing” their name or through marriage. These are discovered through subsequent study of the person’s life and usually appear in naturalization, census, marriage, and/or death records.
• Arrival Date: The date the person arrived at Galveston, provided in JIIB records and in the TXPL.
• Age/Gender: The person’s gender and age upon arrival, as provided in JIIB records and in the TXPL.
• Trade: The person’s stated occupation, as recorded in JIIB documents where they exist, otherwise in TXPL.
• Destination/State: The city to which JIIB dispatched the person from Galveston. These come from JIIB documents where available, otherwise from the TXPL. In many cases, when the immigrant’s placement hadn’t been determined yet when the TXPL was completed, their destination is indicated as Galveston. For this reason, Galveston appears much more often as a destination than it actually was.

The following items do not appear in the default table but can be selected to view using the “Columns” button or can be viewed in the Immigrant Details pop-up by clicking on any row:

• Picture: A picture of the immigrant is provided where one could be located, although most are from later in life.
• Ship: The name of the ship on which they arrived.
• YOB: Year of birth, calculated by subracting their age (as provided in JIIB documents or the TXPL) from the year of arrival.
• Marital Status: Marital status at the time of arrival. Widowed and divorced people are indicated as Single.
• Admission Status: Indicates whether the immigrant was admitted to the United States upon entry at Galveston or “debarred,” meaning denied entry and returned to Europe. Note that many debarred people returned and obtained entry later, either at Galveston or another port.
• JIIB Category. The JIIB recorded immigrants in three categories: Direct placements were those who were recruited for the program by the bureau’s partners in Europe and sent to work in a destination of the bureau’s choosing. Reunion cases were those who traveled through Galveston to reunite with a family member whom the JIIB had placed previously. Courtesy cases are people who arrived on their own in Galveston and sought (and usually received) the bureau’s help in getting to their own chosen destinations. Statistical data exists showing how many immigrants there were in each category, but no documents indicate which category each immigrant was assigned to. These categories, therefore, represent my best guess given that individual’s circumstances.
• Destination/State per JIIB & per TXPL: There are frequently discrepancies between JIIB documents and the TXPL in where an immigrant was going. I have defaulted to the JIIB records where they exist as more authoritative, but these columns show the information contained in both sources.
• Place of birth: These are typically the names of Russian cities and come from JIIB documents where available or, if possible, from the TXPL. The handwritten Russian place names in the TXPL are mostly illegible, so birthplace is given as Russia where no city name could be discerned.
• Naturalization Year, City, State. Data comes from naturalization records where they have been located. Naturalization was a multi-step process, and the person often moved between steps. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve included here only the year and place of the earliest application I located.
• Occupations. Occupations the person engaged in later in life. Sometimes these resemble the trade they reported on arrival, often not.
• Date/Place of Death/Burial place. Where and when the person died and where they are interred, according to death and/or burial records.
• General Search Complete?: Indicates whether or not I have conducted a detailed search for this person. At this time a very small portion of the immigrants has been researched, which accounts for the large number of blank spaces on the details page.
• Confirmed JIIB? Indicates whether or not I have verified that this individual was associated with the JIIB (see Statement of Methodology above for how I do that). If you only wish to see confirmed cases, filter this column to “Y.”