Here is a close up of the route (Freinsheim, Deutschland to Cleveland, Ohio) taken by my 15-year-old great-great-grandfather Michael Harm. According to letters the family received recommending the Le Havre, France port of departure, as well as noted debarkation points of the majority of emigrants from Freinsheim in the 1850s, he took the most common path.
From Kaiserslautern in the Western Palatinate, emigrants traveled by coach to the border town of Forbach, where they entered France. Letters from the time period indicate the French were careless about passcards and paperwork–happy to get the shipping business, the instructions of the customs officials were to look the other way. The coach stopped in Paris for fresh horses and then went on the final leg of the journey to Le Havre.
Though steamships were common by then, Michael Harm traveled on a regular packet ship, part of a fleet owned by a man named Whitlock. The sea crossing was long – over 40 days – until the Helvetia docked at Castle Garden on June 30, 1857.
From New York City, Michael proceeded north on the Hudson River to the Erie Canal, taking a canal boat to Buffalo, then riding by steamer down Lake Erie to Cleveland. His Uncle Johann and Aunt Katherina Rapparlie owned property just at an elbow of the Cuyahoga River by the Ohio Canal, near where the Hard Rock Cafe and the Terminal Tower stand today.