Most Americans with Czech or Slovak ancestry descend from people who left between the 1850s and the First World War. When and why your ancestors left helps you choose the right records, understand what they say and guess where in Central Europe to look. This guide explains the main waves, the destinations and the records, with notes on what the numbers can and cannot tell you. We checked these details in October 2026, and archive holdings, statistics and online collections change, so confirm them before you rely on them.
The Czech wave
- Early arrivals. By the late 1850s there were an estimated 10,000 Bohemians in the United States, according to the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International. One local history says the first group of 16 Czech families arrived at Galveston in 1850 after a voyage from Hamburg that lasted 17 weeks.
- Farmers, then industry. Pre-Civil War Czech immigrants were farmers who settled in Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Nebraska and the Dakotas, and those who arrived after the Civil War opted for larger industrial or mining areas, according to Family Tree Magazine.
- Nebraska. Between 1856 and the First World War, some 50,000 Czech immigrants chose Nebraska, and per capita Nebraska had more first- and second-generation Czechs than any other state, according to History Nebraska.
- Motives. Even when information is available, historians cannot necessarily distinguish among political, economic and personal motives for emigration.
The Slovak wave
Large-scale Slovak immigration began in the 1870s, and between 1880 and the mid-1920s approximately 500,000 Slovaks immigrated to the United States, more than half of whom settled in Pennsylvania, according to Wikipedia. In 2000, about 790,000 people of Slovak descent lived in the United States. Because immigration officials did not keep separate records for each ethnic group within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is impossible to determine the exact number.
The Rusyn and German-Bohemian waves
- Rusyns. About 225,000 Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants came between the 1880s and 1914, and by 1920 nearly 80 percent lived in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. See our Carpatho-Rusyn guide.
- German Bohemians. The primary emigration came in the mid-nineteenth century, with communities in places such as Buffalo and Wisconsin, and German Bohemians are usually counted as German Americans. See our Sudeten guide.
Records of the journey
- Hamburg passenger lists, 1850 to 1934. The Hamburg State Archives preserved the port’s passenger lists, including “direct” records of those sailing straight to America and “indirect” lists of people who changed ships en route, according to Family Tree Magazine.
- Bremen lists. Few of Bremen’s and Antwerp’s passenger lists survived, and what survives from Bremen can be searched on Passengerlists.de, a Bremen City Archive project.
- Ellis Island, 1892 to 1924. The Port of New York database covers these years, and Castle Garden preceded it.
- A finding aid. Leo Baca’s Czech Immigration Passenger Lists can help pinpoint a date and port.
- Czech census margins. A census entry may carry a note of a passport issued to America. See our guide to censuses.
The Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International’s list of immigration resources includes studies of Czech, German-Bohemian and Slovak passengers to Milwaukee and Racine, of immigration to Michigan and of the Landskroner settlement in Wisconsin.
Using the history to focus your search
- Decide which wave your ancestor belonged to. A Czech farmer in the 1850s and a Slovak miner in 1905 left different trails.
- Find the port record. Hamburg lists are especially good for Czech and German-Bohemian emigrants.
- Use the arrival record to identify the village. See how to find the village of origin.
- Then search the registers. See our complete tracing guide.
- Check the home-country records, including censuses with emigration notes.
Illustrative composite (not a real family): A reader’s Czech great-grandfather was a farmer who settled in Nebraska in the 1880s. A Hamburg passenger list gives his village and family, and the 1880 Czech census for that village shows the household before they left. The parish register for the village confirms his baptism and his parents.
Searching the Hamburg and Ellis Island lists
Family Tree Magazine points to Ancestry’s Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850 to 1934 collection and to Stephen Morse’s search forms for the Ellis Island database, which let you search for a surname or town that “sounds like” the one you have. If you do not know the exact village spelling, search by sound and by the first letters. Check both the “direct” and “indirect” Hamburg lists.
Fraternal societies and newspapers
Denied a voice in politics and the use of their language in public places by the ruling Magyars in Hungary, Slovaks in America established self-help societies and fraternal organizations, such as Sokol, the Slovak League of America and the First Catholic Slovak Union, and newspapers, such as Slovenský denník and Jednota, according to Wikipedia. Their records and obituaries can name villages of origin. Czech communities had similar societies and newspapers, and the CGSI list includes studies of the Wisconsin settlement of the Landskroner, from the Czech town known in German as Landskron.
What to look for in US records
- A naturalization paper that names a village or parish.
- A church record in the immigrant parish with a place of origin.
- A fraternal society membership record.
- An obituary in a Czech or Slovak language newspaper.
- The names of relatives who traveled with or before the family.
Common mistakes
- Treating the totals as exact. Records did not separate ethnic groups.
- Searching only Ellis Island. Many Czechs arrived before 1892.
- Ignoring Hamburg. Its lists survive and Bremen’s mostly do not.
- Searching German Bohemians as Czech. They are classed as German.
- Stopping at the arrival record. It points to the village, but the registers prove the family.
Continue with our regions guide and the complete tracing guide, and browse Regions, Borders & Emigration. Sources include the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International’s immigration resources, Family Tree Magazine on Czech and Slovak immigration patterns, History Nebraska on the Czech-American experience, Wikipedia on Slovak Americans and Wikipedia on Rusyn Americans.
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