During the antebellum period, New Orleans was the largest German colony below the Mason-Dixon line. Later settlements moved upriver between New Orleans and Donaldsonville, near Lecompte, and in North Louisiana near Minden. Germans of Louisiana is the first unified published study of the influence the German people made on the state of Louisiana and its inhabitants. Beginning with the French and Spanish colonial periods and working through the post-Civil War period, this book covers the heritage those German settlers left behind.

"An authentic history, from original sources, of their suffering during several centuries before and especially during the two centuries following the Protestant Reformation, and of their slow migration, moved by those causes, during the last mentioned two hundred years, westward in quest of religious freedom and their happy relief in the Susquehanna and Schuylkill valleys in the new world; with particular reference to the German-Swiss Mennonites or Anabaptists, the Amish and other non-resistant sects"--Title page.

Originally published under the auspices of the Swiss-American Historical Society, this book is a collection of essays on topics of interest to persons of Swiss origin, especially those whose ancestors came to America after 1840. The book derives its title from its first and longest chapter, a description of the Swiss-American population in 1930. State by state, Mr. von Grueningen describes the Swiss presence in 1930, accounting for early settlements, occupations, city and county distribution, and changes in Swiss-American demography over time. The remaining chapters feature a potpourri of Swiss historical and genealogical topics. Three chapters treat the Swiss in California. The researcher can read separate accounts of the expeditions of Heinrich Lienhard and Albert Kyburz as they journeyed from Switzerland to join their countryman Johann August Sutter, the central figure in the California gold rush. The fourth chapter concerns the establishment of an Italian-Swiss colony in northern California (San Francisco, Sacramento, etc.) by emigrants from the canton of Tessin (Tecino). In another chapter, genealogists will find many names and dates highlighting the Swiss pioneers of New York and New Jersey. The final chapter discusses the role of Swiss clergy (Catholic, Reformed, etc.), as well as missionary efforts among the Winnebago Indians. In all, this scarce volume refers to nearly 2,500 Swiss or Swiss-Americans.

Each family group record in this impressive volume includes the name(s) of the immigrant(s), ship arrival data, European villages of origin (including earlier Swiss residences where given), data on each family from the European church registers, as well as information on many of the 628 families after their arrival in America. (690pp. illus. index. hardcover. Author, 1992.)

Title of the first 10 volumes of the series is Germans to America : lists of passengers arriving at U.S. ports 1850-1855.

"New Switzerland, an eighty-square-mile area in southwestern [now northeastern] Illinois with the city of Highland as its center," was the largest Swiss community in the United States during the nineteenth century.