Ernest Heinrich Buermeyer and his wife, Louisa (Beyers) may have been the first Buermeyers to emigrate to the New World. We know they traveled in the 1830's at a time when religious and political discontent swirled throughout Germany. 10,000 Germans emigrated to the U.S. in 1832 alone. And the price for low taxes, rich soil and religious freedom didn't come cheap. Ernest and Louisa would have paid approximately $400 for their one-way trip! Anyone who has read "Two Years Before the Mast" or saw the movie "Gangs of New York" will appreciate the conditions Ernest and Louisa were subjected to when they sailed to the New World. Perhaps marginally better than a few decades earlier when Congress passed a bill requiring passenger ships to carry no more than 2 people per 5 tons of a ship's register. What was going through their minds as their ship slowly slipped away from the Bremen harbor knowing they would never again see their homeland or loved-ones? What did they experience on that tretcherous voyage? As research continues on this fascinating family, we've discovered that Ernest and Louisa may not have travelled to America together. There is unconfirmed evidence that the couple met first in Albany, New York and married sometime between 1835 and 1839 when their first son, Henry was born. What did they experience those first few years in New York, a city bursting with immigrants? Remember, this was still 50 years before Liberty's beacon would welcome many more wide-eyed immigrants! In those early years, Ernest must have worked as a laborer as many young German men did in these booming surroundings. Broad and Marketfield streets was only a block away from Pearl street where Ernest leased the boarding house. Ernest must have been an opportunist, seizing on the steady stream of immigrants wandering fresh off the boats on Ellis Island looking for accomondation. The Broad Street House was known in earlier times as Fraunce's Tavern, once used by George Washington to plot strategy during the American Revolution. George Buermeyer recently supplied a US Census from 1860 which describes the establishment. Note the spelling - just one of many variations found in the research. 
His son, Henry describes in his memoirs how all that changed: I was born August 19th, 1839 at the corner of Broad and Marketfield Streets, New York City. The house I was born in was destroyed by the great Conflagration of 1845. Shortly after the fire my father leased the property at the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, then known as the Broad Street House.
1st Ward, New York City, Division 2, sh.63, p.333, line 27
"Boarding House": Dwelling: 124; Family: 492
BURMEYER, Ernest 45 m Germany Boardinghouse Pers.Val:$1000 BURMEYER, Margart [sic] 35 f Germany BURMEYER, Henry E. 21 m NY Bookeeper BURMEYER, Fernando [sic] 13 m NY attended school BURMEYER, Charles 8 m NY attended school also: WATTERS, Jane 19 m [sic] Servant Ireland DURWAN, Julia 21 f Servant Ireland BOHLE, Eliza 21 f Servant Germany RINES, Becker 18 f [?] Servant Germany SCHLUTTEN, Clara 19 f Servant Germany WELLENKAMP, Gustave E. 19 m Barkeeper Germany
69 boarders, all men listed in their 20's and 30's of Irish and German descent. Their occupations ranged from blacksmiths to porters and carpenters.
George Buermeyer notes: "Broad Street House was a substantial establishment; most boarding houses had 10 to 15 boarders." And he adds: "The present Fraunce's Tavern is an informed restoration from 1904."
It's extremely rare, particularly in North America, to trace buildings from that era that are linked to our ancestors. For the immediate family, it provides a tangible link for their children; a place where they can go and walk in the same footsteps as their ancestors, and for the rest of us, Fraunce's Tavern and the New York Athletic Club becomes a suitable location to reflect apon the many sacrifices all our relatives endured to establish their families in a new country.