Ohnsat family photos

I have these photos (mostly of my paternal grandmother's family) that I hope to identify with a date and subject. If you have corrections or additions for any information, please leave a comment on this page or contact me directly at tgkohn@aol.com.

John Robert Ohnsat (1835-1897)

Robert Ohnsat was born 18 Sep 1835 in Deutschland, Schlesien, Kreis Falkenberg, Grüben (present day Grabin, county Niemodlin, Opole, Poland). He was baptized there 20 Sep 1835 at the Roman Catholic church. He emigrated with his brother in May 1870 and embarked on the steamship Silesia in Hamburg. He arrived in the USA at New York. He settled in Pittsburgh PA and was recorded as a butcher in the city directories of 1872-1873, 1876-1877, and 1877-1878. His residences included 135 19th Street (E.B.) and Brownsville Road (Mt. Oliver). He married Leopoldine Salinger on 26 Nov 1872. Studio photograph, likely 1872 (marriage date, age 37). The family with two children and one on the way relocated to Osborne County KS in 1878. He died on 14 Sep 1897 from a hernia or from being kicked by a horse.

Leopoldine Salinger-Ohnsat (1839-1919)

Leopoldine Salinger-Ohnsat was born 29 May 1839 in Germany. She was baptized on 30 May 1839 ay Deutschland, Baden-Württemberg, Kreis Breisach-Hochschwarzwald, Breisach am Rhein. She was a nurse in an insane asylum, perhaps before emigrating to the USA. She emigrated with a sister by 1872. Studio photograph, likely 1889 (age 50).She died 23 Jul 1919 of dropsy (likely a stroke).

Louise Ohnsat-Kohn (1875-1959)

Letter to an elderly cousin

About ten years ago, I visited a distant cousin Alice to tell her of my research in her ancestry. She lived in a quiet neighborhood of Anaheim CA. Orange trees shielded the view of her neighbors' homes. I visited her when she was about 89 years old, shortly after her husband Leo had suffered a stroke. He seemed to be doing pretty well, considering, but he was not very lively.

On the other hand, Alice was very active. Every question I had resulted in her finding another box of family pictures, grade cards, school year books, or other treasures of their life and children's growth.

The visit rekindled my research in her family, and I documented it with a long letter.

I hope my letter finds you well and enjoying the season of Christmas and the New Year, and I hope that 2005 will be a year of joy. It has been two years since my last contacts with you, and I have been fairly successful in my research of the Ohnsat family, both in America and in our ancestors’ European home. 

I believe you told me—or perhaps it was your sister Catherine who told me—that a member of your family once traveled to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in hopes of finding more information about the Ohnsat family. But that there was no luck in the endeavor. Well, I made a short trip to Pittsburgh this past September, and found baptismal and marriage records that helped greatly in finding the European origins of the Ohnsat family and Salinger family. There are also other researchers I have been in touch with who provide information about your mother’s Streit family.

Let me summarize the information I had for you in October 2002: 

• My aunt, Sister Edna Louise Kohn, who now lives at the Nazareth Motherhouse in Concordia, remembered that her grandfather Ohnsat was from “Neisse” or “Silesia.” She remembered that her grandmother Salinger-Ohnsat was from “Frankfurt.” Your sister Catherine Bulthaup remembered that her grandfather was a butcher and her grandmother worked as a nurse, but that she had such a bad experience with nursing that she worked to prevent any of her grandchildren from going into nursing.

• Sister Edna also provided the following birth and death information:
• 
  John Robert Ohnsat born 18 Sep 1835 in “Neisse” or “Silesia,” died 14 Sep 1897 near Tipton, Kansas.
• 
  Leopoldine Salinger born 29 May 1839 in “Frankfort, Germany,” died 23 Jul 1919 from dropsy at the home of her daughter near Tipton, Kansas.
• They came to Kansas in 1878 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These dates were corroborated by information from notes provided by my aunt Katherine Cooper, and from information on tombstones, and in published obituaries.

• City directories of Pittsburgh and its area, dated between 1874 and 1879 locate our family in Pittsburgh residences. The directory of 1876-77 has “Ohnsat Jos, lab [laborer], 16 Twenty-seventh, s s [South Side]” (p. 475). This Joseph Ohnsat is a brother to your grandfather Robert Ohnsat. The directory of 1877-78 has “Ohnest Joseph, butcher, Larimer av, n Broad, e e [East End].” along with “Ohnsat Robert, butcher, Brownsville road, Mt. Oliver, 27th ward.” (p. 464). I believe the name “Ohnest” is a typographic error. 

• The Naturalization Docket Common Pleas No. 1 - Allegheny County, page 328 includes: “[applicant] Ohnsat Robert [no voucher listed] [no date of naturalization listed] [date of declaration] Feby 7, 1873.” The entry probably indicates that Robert Ohnsat was a resident of Allegheny county since about 1871, since the declaration may occur after two years of residency.

Continuing my research based on what I knew, I used the residences of Larimer Street in South Side, North Broad Street in East End, and Brownsville Road in Mount Oliver in a search for Catholic Churches in these neighborhoods. Then I applied to the Diocesan Archives of Pittsburgh for transcripts of any baptism and marriage records for the Ohnsat family. They responded with the following information:

• From the St. Michael (South Side) Marriage Records 1849-1878, p. 318: “26 Nov 1872. Robert Ohnsat; age 37; son of Franz Ohnsat and Kath: Shulz of Prussia married to Anna M.L. Salinger; age 33; daughter of Georgius Salinger and Kath: Vogel of Baden. Witnesses: Joseph Ohnsat, Jacob Müller. Father Fredericus.”
  
  St. Michael Catholic church was at 21 Pius Street. It was deconsecrated and demolished about 1960 

• From the St. Michael (South Side) Baptismal Records 1866-1878, p. 136, 2nd section: “Franz Joseph, born 19 Oct 1873; baptized 2 Nov 1873; father: Robertus Ohnsaat; mother: Leopoline Sallinger; sponsors: Joseph Weizenhefer, Josephine Höbel. Father Ignatius.” 

• From the St. Joseph (Mount Oliver) Baptismal Records 1870-1880, p. 145: “Louisam Cath., born 2 Dec 1875; baptized 12 Dec 1875; father: Roberto Ohnsent, Prussia; mother: Leopoldino Sollenger, Baden; sponsors: Joseph Heirenhäfer, Maria Sherene.”
  
  St. Joseph Catholic church was at 438 Ormsby Avenue. It was deconsecrated and demolished in the late 20th Century. 

• No record of the marriage of Joseph Ohnsat or of his children's baptisms at St. Michael, St. Joseph (Mt. Oliver), Sts Peter & Paul (East End), or St. Philomena. The only record found was a baptism for Catherine in 1899. Since she was identified as Lutheran prior to conversion, it is most likely that her parents’ marriage did not take place in a Catholic parish. From the St. Philomena (Pittsburgh) Baptismal Records 1895-1908, p. 97: “Catharinam Christinam Dorothea, born 15 Jul 1879; baptized 16 Apr 1899; father: Josepho Onshat, Grüben Falkenberg, Prussia; mother: Elizabeth Rothamel, Grossalmerade, Hessen-Cassell; sponsor: Rosa Crenner. Note in record: newly converted from Lutheranismo, conditional baptismal. Step-father's name Elliott.”

Since this letter, I've been contacted by another descendant of the Elliott family. This contact provided a great deal of fresh information about Joseph Ohnsat, who died in Pittsburgh PA in 1880.

The letter continued...

From the two marriage records, I gleaned the location of Grüben Falkenberg, Prussia for the Ohnsat family and of Baden for the Salinger family. Using catalogs made available on the internet by the Church of Latter Day Saints, I found Church Registers of Grüben in Kreis (county) Falkenberg, a county in the Schlesien district of Ostpreußen (East Prussia). 

The photo shows typical “Sunday clothes” of 19th-Century Schlesien.

Grüben is a small town of about 500 residents today. It is within about 30 miles of the town of Neisse, and within ten miles of the Neisse River. Since the Prussian empire broke up in the early Twentieth Century, and since the eastern borders of Germany were changed numerous times around WW II, the area now is in the south-central part of Poland. The town is named Grabin in Polish, and its county seat is now named Niemodlin. It is in the Polish state of Opole.

I have reviewed the Church Registers of Grüben, and the handwriting in the volumes is very hard to read. With the help of a transcription service, I have identified my 2nd great grandparents (and your great grandparents) : Franz Ohnsat (b. about Jan 1803) and Catharina Scholz (b. about Aug 1806). Catharina’s family name may have been “Schotz,” since the handwriting in the Church Register is somewhat illegible. Franz and Catharina were married in Grüben on 15 Nov 1831. They had seven children I know of: Franz Josef (b. 13 Mar 1833), Johann Robert (b.18 Sep 1835), Franz Anton (b. 10 Dec 1837), Maria Caroline (b. 8 Jul 1840), Joseph August (b. 3 Jul 1842), Carl Anton (b. 13 Oct 1844), and Johann Heinrich (b. 2 Apr 1847). I have not researched the Church Registers for marriages or deaths of these children, so I cannot guess whether only your grandfather and one grand uncle emigrated to the U.S.

Also according to the Church Registers, the father of Franz Ohnsat was Joseph Ohnsat, who had died by the date of Franz’ wedding to Catharina Scholz. Catharina’s father was Johann Scholz, a farmer. Both families were from Grüben, as were the unrelated witnesses to the marriage of Franz and Catharina. By their stated occupations, Johann Scholz owned a fair amount of farmland, but Joseph Ohnsat owned a smaller parcel.

I was contacted recently by a researcher whose 3rd Great Grandmother Johanna Juliana Scholz is a sister to my 2nd Great Grandmother Catharina Scholz. This researcher lives near Heidelberg Germany, and they are familiar with the area of Grüben, as well as other areas of Germany where I pursue research.

At least with online phone directories, there are no German families with the name Ohnsat today. The family name has several variant spellings in the Church Registers, including Ohnsatt, Ohnsath, and Ohnesat. Other variant spellings may include Ohnezeit and Ohneseit, which are more common names in today’s Germany than the spelling Ohnsat. I have contacted several researchers with the names Ohneseit and Ohnezeit, but they have not returned e-mails to date.

I found the European home of your grandmother also: Breisach am Rhein, in Kreis Breisgau-Hochscwarzwald, in the state of Baden (today Baden-Württemberg).
Breisach am Rhein is on the eastern bank of the Rhein River, at the extreme southwestern corner of today’s Germany. The county that surrounds the town shares borders with France and Switzerland. The county population is about 243.000 residents, and the town itself has 8,644 residents.

I have reviewed the Church Registers of Breisach am Rhein, and the handwriting in the volumes is a bit easier to read than the Grüben records. I have identified my 2nd great grandparents : Georg Salinger and Katherina Vogel. I have not found their marriage record yet, but I have found four of their children: Carl Julius (b. 26 Mar 1833), Anton Herrmann (b.21 Jun 1836), Maria Anna Josepha (b. 21 Mar 1838), and Anna Maria Leopoldina (b. 30 May 1839). I have not researched the Church Registers for marriages or deaths of these children, so I cannot guess whether only your grandmother emigrated to the U.S.

I have researched the Ohnsat family in the U.S. by reviewing censuses of the last twenty years of the 19th Century.

• In the U.S. Census of 23 Jun 1880, the Robert Ohnsat family lived in Bloom township of Osborne county, Kansas. Robert gave his age as 45 and said he was born in Prussia. His wife Leopoldina gave her age as 34 and said she was born in Baden. Their children’s ages were given as 6 for Frank, 4 for Louiza or Louise, and 2 for Barney. Their neighbors then included the families of Nicholas ARNOLDY, Peter SIMEON, John ARNOLDY, Philip SCHROEDER, Martin OTTLEY, Peter REINERT, Franz RIEDEL, Frank BORDEN, Nicholas RHEINHART, and Nick GASPER. 

• In the Kansas Census of 1 Mar 1885, the family reported ages of 49 for Robert, 45 for Leopoldina, 11 for Francis, 9 for Louisa, and 6 for Barney. None of the children had attended school within the year, but none were reported as illiterate either. Robert reported owning 320 acres, which were fully in use as farmland, with a value of $1200 for the land and $70 for farm implements and machinery. 50 acres were sown in wheat, 11 in corn, 8 in oats, 0.5 in Irish potatoes, and 1 in millet. He had 150 bushels of corn on hand and 200 bushels of wheat. He had cut 9 tons of prairie hay in 1884.He had sold $5 worth of eggs the previous year, and had made 200 pounds of butter. His livestock included 4 horses, 6 milk cows, 13 other cattle, and 13 swine with a total value of $24. He had 112 peach trees and 6 cherry trees. He had one dog. 

• The U.S. Census of 1890 was lost due to a fire in a storage area, which was destroyed in 1921. Of the millions of detailed questionnaires completed for the Eleventh Census of the United States, taken in June 1890, only a fragment of the general population schedules and an incomplete set of special schedules enumerating Union veterans and widows are available today. All the records of Kansas were lost. 

• In the Kansas Census of 1 Mar 1895, the family reported ages of 59 for Robert, 56 for Leopolina, 21 for Francis, 19 for Louisa, and 16 for Bernhart. Only “Bernhart” had attended school within the year, but none were reported as illiterate either. Robert reported owning 320 acres, all “under fence,” of which 100 acres were in cultivation, with a value of $3000 for the land and $75 for farm implements and machinery. 25 acres were sown in wheat, 50 in corn, 5 in oats, 1 in Irish potatoes, and 1 in sorghum for forage or seed. His plans for the next year were 40 acres wheat, 100 acres corn, 8 acres oats, 2 acres Irish potatoes, 5 acres millet, and 1 acre Kaffir corn. He had 200 bushels of wheat on hand. He had cut 25 tons of prairie hay in 1884.He had sold $12 worth of eggs the previous year, and had made 200 pounds of butter. His livestock included 9 horses, 4 milk cows, 60 other cattle, and 53 swine with a total value of $366. He had 2 apple trees and 1 peach tree, and 0.25 acre vineyards; artificial forested area was 1 acre honey locust and 9 acres other varieties. He had one dog.

I have relatively little information about two of the three children of John Robert and Leopoldina Ohnsat. Could you review the information here for you and your brothers and sisters, and help me fill in the missing data?

The letter continued for another four pages, filled with information about Alice's parents, uncles, and aunts. Since they lived into the 20th C, I will provide the information only by private email to family members.

© Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.

Letter in answer to a distant Ohnsat relative

I recently met a very distant relative on Facebook. We are related through my grandmother Louise Ohnsat.(1875-1959) and her brother Frank Ohnsat (1873-1962). When she found we were related, she asked about the family history. This is my first reply.


Hi,
I have a lot of bits of a story. Perhaps the bits we put together can tell more.

First, my grandmother Louise Ohnsat died when I was almost 8 years old. I have a few memories of her, but her death and burial are what really stick in my head—not in any bad way, but it was my first observation of what death means. She died at age 83, I guess from heart failure or a stroke. She wasn't hospitalized, but was at home bedridden with a lot of my aunts in attendance. (My mother—a daughter-in-law—was a registered nurse, and a daughter—Sr. Edna Louise—was also a nurse who specialized in pediatrics.) I think she lingered a few days before death took her. She lay in the front bedroom, my grandfather slept on a sofa in the next room. The house was always dark and quiet then, even with a bustle of family members.

Grandpa and Grandma lived in a very small town, Tipton Kansas. There was no funeral home there, and Grandma was laid out for a while in her bed. Then when a casket was bought from Osborne a few miles away, she was laid out in the gym of the local Knights of Columbus hall, which was also a practices and game location for the nearby Catholic high school. Grandma's coffin was set up in front of the stage, and several rows of wooden chairs arced around the coffin and dim lamps that the undertaker had brought in for the rosaries and votive. After the funeral mass and burial, we returned to the hall for a dinner, which the whole town of Tipton attended, including many of my Ohnsat relatives.

I didn't know the Ohnsats very well, except for a few 2nd cousins who lived in Tipton and Beloit Kansas. (They are grandchildren of my Grandma's brother Frank Ohnsat (1873-1962).) Many, many years later I heard that Grandma's brothers Frank and Ben did not get along. There was some dispute among them, perhaps about their father's land (Robert Ohnsat, 1835-1897), and each accused the other of being untrustworthy and money grubbing. I bet that there was a bit of truth there, but also some source of longstanding sibling rivalry that finally burst to the surface, perhaps to the point of neither brother talking to the other.

Ben Ohnsat (1878-1948) married a neighbor girl, Cecelia Riedel (about 1883-about 1950), about 1903 and moved to Garden City Kansas, some 150 miles away. They had one daughter, Josephine, in 1904. Josephine married Joseph Jeremiah Ohmes (1899-1981) about 1922, and they had 14 children. I've been told that many of the children were deaf and needed to learn sign language at a boarding school. (I've not been in touch with any members of this family, so the information is at best second-hand. However, I do have all the children's names and birth and death dates at least through about 1995.)

I hope you can provide some information about your grandfather Francis Ohnsat (1917-1976) and his wife Mille Wiese (the name I have for her at least, 1920-1995). He was among several of the children of your great-grandparents Frank Ohnsat (1873-1962) and Appolonia Streit-Ohnsat (1883-1947) who moved from Kansas to California, generally in the 1930s. Among them were

Anna Marie (1902-1994) and husband August Arnoldy (1889-1961) of Yuba City
Mary Isabelle (1904-2000) and husband Alex Simeon (1904-1981) of Orange County
Robert Charles Ohnsat (1912-1937) of Marysville CA
Matilda Barbara (1915-1998) and husband Victor Stoffel of Fallbrook CA and/or Anaheim
Alice Marie (1925-) and husband Leo Waldman (1915-) of Anaheim.

I visited Alice perhaps 8 years ago, during one of the spring breaks we used to spend in Palm Springs CA.

-o-

My great-grandfathers John M. Kohn (1839-1919) and Robert Ohnsat owned fairly large amounts of land very close to each other in southeastern Osborne County Kansas. The land there has rocky, rolling hills and little rain. Very little of the area is tilled for crops, and the large expanses of native grass are best for cattle grazing. My aunt told me of annual cattle drives that she would see her grandfather starting out, either to drive them all the way to Kansas City (about 250 miles east) or --more likely-- to a railway siding where the cattle were loaded for transit to Kansas City. Their land is about equidistant from the county seat of Osborne and the German community of Tipton. I think the families seldom went to Osborne for supplies and social activities. Instead, they drove wagons to Tipton, about 9 miles away, where they felt at home with the older part of the community who also had a common heritage and language.

Land and its inheritance split many families, I think. My grandfather inherited his father's land, though I guess that he arranged a buy-out of the ownership of his 2 brothers' and 2 sisters' rights. I believe the inheritance occurred to everyone's satisfaction, even though Grandpa Mike (1879-1965) was not the eldest son. The eldest was Peter Kohn (1877-1941), and next were Kate Kohn-Gasper (1881-1955) and Annie Kohn-Streit (1882-1956), then Ben Kohn (1884-1955). All lived in the Tipton area, and I believe all on farms, but the original Kohn land was not split among them. I guess the same happened in the Ohnsat family. Perhaps Ben felt he was cheated on the value of the property; perhaps he was hurt that the land wasn't divided among the three of them.

Maybe you have some information to add here?

Tipton Kansas was settled by many German families from about 1870 through 1880. Though my grandfather spoke a few words of German, his primary language was English, but he had a slight German accent. My father retained even less German, perhaps a vocabulary of 50 words only. Maybe you can tell me whether there is or was a strong German community in Yuba County, which might have persuaded some of the family to settle there. There are also some extended Kohn cousins who also live the region.

Quickly I'll answer some of your other questions:

The Ohnsat family is indeed German, and they likely came from around Paderborn in the central-northeast part of Germany. However, the family I have records for so far is that of Franz Ohnsat (1803-perhaps 1870) and his wife Catharina Scholz (1806-perhaps 1870). They lived in what is now Poland, near the Neisse River, in a very small town named Grabin (today) or Grüben (then). I suspect they were part of a settling of the area while Prussia was building its empire, and that the move was temporary, tied to political pressures and economic encouragements. While they lived there, their citizenship was either Prussian (Preußen) or East Prussian (Ostpreußen).

At least two brothers of the family emigrated to the USA around 1870-1872. They were greatgrandfather John Robert Ohnsat and his brother Joseph August (1842-1880). They both lived in Pittsburgh PA through 1880. Robert married there and brought his family to Kansas between 1875-1878. Joseph married Elizabeth Rothamel (1848-perhaps 1915) there, had three children, and "He was walking down the street in East Liberty next to a tanning factory when a worker threw a piece of scrap metal out the window striking Joseph in the head. He died a day later from a fractured skull," according to contemporary newspaper reports. I've been in touch with his great grandson Larry.

The name has always been a close variant of Ohnsat, with occasional spellings of Ohnsatt and Ohnsaht in baptismal records. I too thought that Onstat, Onstott or Onstodt might be a possibliity, as that name occurs in some Pennsylvania records of unrelated individuals.

I know nothing about the Thompson seedless grape story you refer to. Perhaps your family in California has been involved in grape farming?

I know very little about your grandmother Millie. I beleive that the Social Security data includes her as "MELLADENE H OHNSAT 30 Apr 1920 22 Apr 1995 (not specified) (none specified) 429-18-9616 Arkansas" so she lived in Arkansas when she first registered for Social Security withholding from her employment. I have no other information, so this may not be her. However, I have assumed that Arkansas is her state of birth.

My data shows your father was one of 4 brothers and 1 sister (Robert, Michael John, Jim, Rick, and Donna Marie). Since I have no marriage information for your grandparents, I guess that they were all born approximately 1935-1945. I don't know who are your parents; I have only a husband for Donna Marie, Roger Baker.

I hope you can relate some of the family stories.

Planning the ships research project

2012.04.28
The Dayton Public Library has about 75 shelf feet of published books that list immigrant passengers of ships that arrived in the New World. Each book lists from 50,000 to as many as 500,000 passengers' names, along with the date of arrival and the ship name. There are no indexes of the names,except for some of the books that index just that book. Some of the series are grouped chronologically, but not all. Some books list all immigrants in alphabetic order, some by the ship's arrival in port. I have yet to review all, but at least some list the original sources that the volume documents

Books that list immigrants to America, Dayton public library, main branch 

Since Robert Schuh's questions about when each of the Kohn brothers emigrated, what ships they took, and where they arrived in the U.S., I've been planning the research that's needed to answer the questions. Not that I didn't have the same questions, but I put it off because I knew the detailed work that the research entails. Because of the huge number of secondary resources and the lack of indexes, I want to go through the volumes only once, though there are many ancestors who made the crossing at various times.

I am now building a spreadsheet that lists each person who emigrated. Where possible, I'm including the last known date in Europe and the first known date in the U.S. I'm lucky for the Johann Reinert family and two of the Kohn brothers. (See the list in the report about Robert Schuh's visit.)

But I plan to include as many emigrées as possible, including these ancestors:

• Great-grandmother Maria Stephan left Königheim, in today's Main-Tauber-Kreis of Baden-Wurttemberg and was naturalized in 1872 or 1873. (She was born in 1849.)
• Great-grandfather Anton Deneke left Brakel, in today's Kreis Höxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen and apparently immigrated in 1872. He resided in Cincinnati, Ohio before 1876. (He was born in 1836.)
• Great-grandmother Leopoldina Salinger left Breisach-am-Rhein, in today's Kreis Breisach,  Baden-Wurttemberg, perhaps in 1872 with a sister Maria Anna Josepha Salinger and brother Anton Hermann Salinger. (They were born in 1839, 1838, and 1836.)
• Great-grandfather Robert Ohnsat left Grüben, in what was once Kreis Falkenberg, Schlesien, Ostpreußen, but now called Grabin, in Niemodlin county, Opole, Poland. He resided in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by 1872, as did his brother Joseph Ohnsat. It's possible that another brother Carl Anton Ohnsat emigrated and settled in the Detroit, Michigan area. (They were born in 1835, 1842, and 1844.)
• Second-great-grandparents John Butler and Mary Kennedy left Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland with their four children to settle in or near Syracuse, New York by February 1837. (They were born in 1801 and 1797.)
• Second-great-grandparents Dennis Cummings and Margaret Walsh, who left Ireland, perhaps with their family of two daughters. They were recorded in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census in Dane County, Wisconsin. (They were born in 1806 and 1800.)
• Chuck's grandfather Giovanni (John) Iacano or Chuck's great grandparents Francesco Gacomo and Francesca Rovetto left Ragusa, Siracusa Province, Sicily. If it was his grandfather Giovanni, he arrived on his own—or perhaps with a brother Emanuel—on 20 March 1904. (They were born in 1882, about 1855, and about 1855.)
• Chuck's great grandparents Vincenzo Russo Femminella and Rosa Blogna (or Bologna) left Miltello Rosmarino, Messina Province, Sicily, arrived at Ellis Island on 29 June 1911 with their two children Angela, who is Chuck's grandmother, and her brother Biagio. (They were born in 1879 and about 1869.)
• Chuck's great grandfather Charles Derry, or Chuck's 2nd great grandfather, whose name is unknown so far, were in the United States before 1857. (He was born about 1820.)

I want to do this research only once, because the list of sources is so daunting. I encourage other family genealogists to add a comment if there's another immigrant I should research. In your comment, include all that you know about the arrival, such as

• Full name
• Likely date of arrival, or range of time
• Departure port
• Accompanying family members and their relationships

At least for now, I plan on focused work on arrivals at New York, but I can expand the search with other requests. I'll update this post as my plans reach the next stage, of actually going through the sources.

2012.06.02
I added the brothers to Robert Ohnsat and added birth years for each person.
2012.05.08
I added dates to the listed family who immigrated.
2012.05.01
A discussion of American immigration by ship refers to the National Archives holdings and essential secondary sources in multi-volume books. The Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library has some of these multi-volume books in its 75 shelf feet of materials.  They include:

• The famine immigrants : lists of Irish immigrants arriving at the port of New York, 1846-1851 Ira A. Glazier, editor ; Michael Tepper, associate editior. (7 v. : ill. ; 24 cm. Contents: v.1. January, 1846-June, 1847.--v.2. July 1847-June 1848.--v.3. July 1848-March 1849.--v.4. April 1849-September 1849.--v.5. October 1849-May 1850.--v.6. June 1850-March 1851.--v.7. April 1851-December 1851.) The Great Potato Famine, brought on by a blight that struck the potato crop, reduced nearly all of Ireland to poverty. Between 1846-1851 over a million men, women, and children emigrated to the U.S. and Canada, the majority of them entering through the port of New York. In essence, this work is a chronological listing of nearly 651,000 passengers with name, age, sex, occupation, date of arrival, port of embarkation, and vessel.
• Germans to America. series II : lists of passengers arriving at U.S. ports in the 1840s edited by Ira A. Glazier. (v. <1-7 > : ill., maps ; 24 cm. Contents: v. 1. January 1840-June 1843 -- v. 2. July 1843-December 1845 -- v. 3. January 1846-October 1846 -- v. 4. November 1846-July 1847 -- v.5. July 1847-March 1848 -- v.6. April 1848-October 1848 -- v.7. October 1848-December 1849.) Approximately 70,000 names in each volume. Lists are arranged chronologically by ship arrival. "Every passenger is identified by full name, age, sex, occupation, destination and when . . . available [the] country, province, or town of origin."
• Italians to America : lists of passengers arriving at U.S. ports edited by Ira A. Glazier and P. William Filby. (v. ; 24 cm. Contents: v. 1. January 1880-December 1884 -- v. 2. January 1885-June 1887 -- v. 3. July 1887-June 1889 -- v. 4. July 1889-Oct. 1890 -- v. 5. November 1890-December 1891 -- v.6. January 1892-December 1892 -- v.7. January 1893-September 1893 -- v.8. October 1893-May 1895 -- v.9.June 1895-June 1896 -- v.10. July 1896-June 1897 -- v.11. June 1897-May 1898 -- v.12. May 1898-April 1899 -- v.13. May 1899-November 1899 -- v.14. December 1899-May 1900 -- v.15. May 1900-November 1900 -- v.16. November 1900-April 1901 -- v. 17. April 1901-September 1901 -- v.18. October 1901-March 1902 -- v.19. April 1902-June 1902 -- v.20. June 1902-October 1902 - v.21. November 1902-March 1903 - v.22. March 1903-April 1903 - v.23. April 1903-June 1903 - v.24. June 1903-October 1903 - v.25. October 1903-March 1904 - v.26. March 1904-May 1904.. Includes indexes.)
• Emigrants from Baden and Württemberg in the eighteenth century by Brigitte Burkett.
• Nineteenth century emigrants from Baden : volume 2 : Graben, Linkenheim, Spöck & Staffort / by Brigitte Burkett.
• German immigrants, 1820-1920 / by Helen Frost. (32 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 21 cm. Contents: Early German immigrants -- Life in the old country -- The trip over -- Arriving in America -- Surviving in America -- Keeping traditions -- Timeline -- Famous German-Americans -- Words to know -- To learn more -- Places to write and visit -- Internet sites.)
• Passenger and immigration lists bibliography, 1538-1900: being a guide to published lists of arrivals in the United States and Canada / edited by P. William Filby. Gives "full bibliographic information for more than 2,550 published passenger and immigration lists." A revision of A Bibliography of Ship Passenger Lists, 1538-1825, compiled by Harold Lancour. 3rd ed., rev. and enl. by Richard J. Wolfe, 1963.
• Passenger and immigration lists index: a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries / edited by P. William Filby, with Mary K. Meyer. (3 v. (xxxv, 2339 p.) ; 29 cm.) Alphabetical listing of passengers who arrived in North America and the West Indies between 1538-1900, compiled from published sources: passenger lists and naturalization records. Entries include age; year of arrival or naturalization, with an abbreviation for the bibliographic citation with volume and page. Some 125,000 names are added annually in the published Supplements.
• Passenger and immigration lists index. Supplement. (v. ; 29 cm. Latest issue consulted: 2005. Issued in two pts. per year, 1998-<2004> Cumulates in: Passenger and immigration lists index. cumulated supplements.)
• The Immigration History Research Center : a guide to collections compiled and edited by Suzanna Moody and Joel Wurl ; production coordinated by Judith Rosenblatt and Anne Bjorkquist Ng ; foreword by Rudolph J. Vecoli.

2012.05.08

The website Immigrant Arrivals: A Guide To Published Sources includes these other relevant sources, which may be in the Dayton library.

• Hamburg (Germany). Auswanderungsamt. [Records, 1850-1873.] LC call number: Microfilm 10,897GA-43N-43P Listen Direkt, Manuscript Division; Microfilm 10,897GB-23N-23P Listen Indirekt, Manuscript Division LC control number: mm 83070243

Finding aid, Manuscript Division Reading Room. See also the vertical file, LH&G. Names east European emigrants from two lists covering the period 1850-1873: Direct Lists (indexed) are passengers who sailed directly from Hamburg, Germany, to their destination; Indirect Lists (indexed) names passengers who sailed from Hamburg, but who stopped at another European port before reaching their destination. Handwritten in German script, the names are arranged by first letter of the surname. Entries include name of the ship, master of the vessel, departure date, name of passenger, age, previous residence, occupation, and destination.

• Irish Passenger Lists, 1847-1871: List of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. Cooke Line and the McCorkell Line. Compiled under the direction of Brian Mitchell. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1988. xvii, 333 p., ill., index. LC call number: E184 .I6I69 1988 LC control number: 87082306

For business reasons two Londonderry shipping firms kept passenger lists of their Atlantic crossings: J. & J. Cooke, 1847-1867, and William McCorkell & Co., 1863-1871. Cooke's include name of ship, year of embarkation, destination, Irish address of the passenger (usually town), and ages of children. The McCorkell lists provide name and address of passenger, month and year of embarkation, ages of children, month and year "engaged" at Philadelphia by the Robert Young and Co., name of the ship, month and year of embarkation.

• Kaminkow, Jack and Marion. A List of Emigrants from England to America, 1718-1759. Baltimore, Md.: Magna Carta Book Co., 1988. xxvii, 292 p. Includes 3,000 names. "Transcribed from microfilms of the original records at the Guildhall, London." LC call number: E187.5 .K3 1988 LH&G LC control number: 88083835

• Luxembourgers in the New World: A Reedition Based on the Work of Nicholas Gonner, "Die Luxemburger in der Neuen Welt," Dubuque, Iowa, 1889. Edited by Jean Ensch, Jean-Claude Muller, Robert E. Owen; original translations by Gerald L. Liebenau and Jean-Claude Muller. Esch-sur-Alzette, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg: Editions-Reliuers Schortgen, 1987. 2 vols. Ill. LC call number: E184 .L88L89 1987 LH&G LC control number: 87170772

Vol. 1, discussion of Luxembourger emigration, 1840-1890, with comments on settlements, occupations, and activities in the U.S. Vol. 2, principally an index to approximately 4,000 personal and place names cited in the Luxembourger Gazette (Dubuque, Iowa), 1872-1892.

• Schenk, Trudy, Ruth Froelke, and Inge Bork. The Wuerttemberg Emigration Index. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, Inc., 1986-92. LC call number: CS627 .W86S34 1986 LH&G LC control number: 85052453

Projected 8-volume work, each with approximately 12,000 names of individuals derived from 19th-century immigration registers of Wuerttemberg, Germany. Data include date and place of birth, date of emigration application, destination, home district of the applicant, and number of the microfilmed originals at the Genealogical Society of Utah.

Further reading may be necessary at these websites.

• PASSENGER LISTS: The Pitfalls - A Personal Experience
• Finding Passenger Lists & Immigration Records 1820-1940s

Certainly there are other references to look up.