Passenger Lists - Introduction
Introduction to Passenger List Research
ONLINE RESOURCES:
Anyone using a computer for genealogy research and interested in Passenger Lists should sign on to the following mailing lists. I found them extremely helpful. Just write
1. "subscribe" in the message area. (No quotes, of course.*G*) and send to:
[email protected]
2. "Subscribe emigration-ships" in the message area.
(No quotes, again) and send to:
[email protected]
Online: There are numerous Passenger Lists online (only a few mentioned here.) But these may offer a
few good starting points.
Olive Tree Ship Lists
There is a searchable database, called "Passengers Arriving from Ireland
by Surname." It is not a huge database; some fairly common Irish
surnames come up with nothing.
http://www.cimorelli.com/safe/shipmenu.htm
Additionally, here are some handy URLS from Barbara Martinez on The Ships List:
Most of these are archived sites, but searchable.
Searchable Records of Transporation of Criminals to Australia from Ireland
Guide to Research: Immigration and ship Passengers Lists
**Not only Ireland, but many passenger lists
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/3575/Ships.html
Sheila Wenkens (Thanks Sheila) has started making links to passenger lists she has found on the net. If
you have some that are not on Sheila's page, please send it to her at or
[email protected].
What was it really like? Check out
The Diary of an ocean passenger (Robert Whyte's Diary of a coffin ship)
and the next five pages, which start here.
OFFLINE RESOURCES
Tool Kit for passenger PASSENGER LISTS FOR IRISH IMMIGRANTS
1. There are many different issues with dealing with Irish Immigrants. There are the Potato Famine immigrants, indentured servant immigrants, and mistaken counties of origin based on ship departures. Using some of the above information, we will describe a possible scenario of an immigrant from Ireland to Boston in the 1870's.
Our immigrant, we will call Patrick could travel either to Queenstown (Cobh), where the Cunard
steamships to Boston and New York called to pick up passengers, or to Liverpool, where he could
board a steamship belonging to any one of several steamship lines with services to New York and/or Boston. Because we know that Patrick came into Boston, we will first check the index to passenger lists of vessels arriving at Boston ("State Lists"), 1848-1891, National Archives Microfilm Publication M265, roll 222. Again, a copy of this film can be borrowed through AGLL, any LDS (Mormom) Family History Center (Family History Library, microfilm #0205877) or Interlibrary Loan.
AHA!! We have located Patrick in this index, but alas, these manifests are NOT Federal records, (State lists) and have not been microfilmed. But you now have the name of the vessel and the date of the manifest. You may now write to Boston, (or the particular state you are looking in)
Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
220 Morrissey Blvd.
Dorchester, MA 02125
and receive a photocopy of the passenger manifest itself. Therefore, even though the film may not be available through the usual channels (AGLL, LDS Family History Centers, or Interlibrary Loan) all is not lost! The state to the rescue.
(This information is thanks to Michael Palmer of emigration-ship mailing list).
2.ONLINE IRISH INF0
- On a page called Books We Own there are several folks who offer to do look-ups from their books.
- The PRONI site, Public Records of Northern Ireland, has some immigration
information on it. It's a must!!.
3. CHAT:
Join the Ireland Chat on IRC, IIGS
(For a time conversion visit
http://www.iigs.org/webmasters/faq/time_chart.htm.en
Server : irc.IIGS.org
port : 6667 or 7000
Channel: #Ireland-gen
For details on how to join if you are new .. Visit
Themed Chats on IRC and look toward the bottom of the page.
BOOK LIST
1. The Heraldic Artist book (paperback, about $12.00) includes selections from the Irish emmigration census of the 1832-33 era including believed destination. Includes 100 or so ships lists.
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~bwo/ireland.html
2. The Famine Immigrants; Ira A. Glazier and Michael Tepper,
Lists of Irish Immigrants Arriving at the Port of New York, 1846-1851, (7 volumes: Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co, 1983-1986.
Filby's Passenger and Immigration Lists Index;
often referred to as �Filby's". This Index of Ship's Passengers
consists of three massive volumes plus an additional 12+
volumes of indexes of ship passenger lists.
The initial three volumes (broken down by alpha sections) list a massive
number of passengers from various ship's lists with various
destinations. This index was taken from many different sources
and compiled alphabetically by surname. Subsequent to the initial 3 volumes
additional supplements have been issued about 1 per year for about 13
years. Each supplement lists many more names alphabetically and the source of
the information. The year of supplement has nothing to do with the
date of passage. Many (maybe most) larger city main libraries have a
complete set of Filby's. And it can often be obtained by inter-library
loan
Step 1. Look up the surname(s) in which you are interested. Look the
name(s) up in the initial volume(s) and every subsequent volume as there
may be many persons with similar same data. Each surname will provide
Surname, given name, destination, year - followed by a number and a page
number. Carefully note all of this data and the volume number on a
sheet of paper.
Step 2. In the front of each volume there will be a bibliography
listing (by number). Write the source document name and data on your
sheet. NOTE: You must look up the document in the front of the
specific volume in which you found the person's name.
Step 3. Obtain a copy of that source document (if necessary by
inter-library loan). Not too many libraries are likely to have many
of these source documents or books.
Step 4. Having obtained the source book or document (do not rely on the
page number listed in Filby's, look up in the source document index the
name(s) of interest and go to that page. The individual page will list
the following data: SURNAME, Given Name, Age, Year of passage, Townland
(County, Township, etc.), Destination (of ship), occupation and religion,
or some portion of that data..
Caveats:
The name(s) are no better than provided by the passenger and may contain
errors as the purser guessed at some spellings (many people of that day
did not even know how to spell their own name).
Children may or may not be listed as was the practice of the shipping
line. The destination was usually that of the initial destination of
the ship and not necessarily the destination of the passenger.
It's great if you find your ancestor in "Filby's", but be aware that, as
big as it is, Filby's only has about 15% of the immigrants to the US. If I
understand the foreword correctly, Filby's is an index to PUBLISHED
passenger lists (ie, those in print), and is NOT an index to the acual
passenger lists, which for many ports in the USA are available on microfilm
from the NARA or Salt Lake.
HELPFUL HINTS
**********MAKE SURE YOU KNOW YOUR SOUNDEX CODES**********
To find your surname codes, go to the SOUNDEX MACHINE at
NARA
There is a soundex index to passenger lists of vessels arriving at various ports in different time periods that has been microfilmed by the National Archives and recorded by various Publication Numbers and Roll numbers. For example, the National Archives Microfilm Publication T520, roll 35, is the soundex index to passenger lists of vessels arriving at Baltimore, from 1897-1952. These microfilms can be borrowed through:
- AGLL,
- any LDS (Mormon) Family History Center
- Interlibrary Loan.
The soundex index gives for each passenger his/her age and sex (in the form 24f = 24 years old, female), the date of arrival, the name of the vessel on which the passenger arrived, the volume into which is found the passenger manifest for this vessel and voyage, and the page and line number of the manifest on which the passenger's name appears.
Now, while the soundex index for those years of Baltimore arrivals is all on one roll, the actual
passenger manifests of vessels consists of 150 rolls. Once you have determined from the soundex index the date and vessel on which your ancestor arrived, and the bound volume that contains the passenger manifest for the voyage, you will need to return to your computer.
To determine the microfilm roll that contains the bound volume, you need to go to the National
Archives and Records Administration website at
http://www.nara.gov/publications/microfilm/immigrant/rg85........html>
where the ...........is the location where your ancestor arrived (such as blt for Baltimore or bos for
Boston). Here you will find the publication #, dates and Roll #'s that contain the bound volume you are seeking. Format is as follows:
National Archives Microfilm Publication _______
(ex.) Vol Dates.................Roll#......(LDS Family History Library Microfilm # )
.....201....03 May -28 May....Roll #22...(LDS microfilm #0640772)
.....202....24 May - 09 Jun...Roll #23...(LDS microfilm #0640773)
(these are examples only, not real references)
Note: Dates may overlap and in some cases, the National Archives recorded in reverse order.
Once again, these rolls may be borrowed from the above three sources.
Also important to remember that NOT ALL LISTS HAVE BEEN MICROFILMED!!!
.
More Websites - Some Early!
Passenger Records
(list of library microfilm holdings pertaining to "Information on Records of
Passenger Arrivals at the Port of New Orleans" available at New Orleans public
library or which can be ordered from the American Genealogical Lending
Library).
Irish Passenger Lists
(Irish Passenger Lists)
Australia Passenger Lists
(description
of database services offered and sample passenger list of emigrants leaving
the UK and Ireland bound for Australia in 1910, some potentially disembarking
before arriving in Australia).
Passenger List
(Handy index
to alphabetic breakdown of names contained on U.S. passenger list immigration
microfilm rolls from the 1800's, arranged by port.)
Ships Passenger Lists
(passenger lists for vessels arriving in North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Boston.
Emigration to U.S.A.
(Sources
available at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland)
INDEX PASSENGER LISTS - LISTES DE PASSAGERS (INDEX)
(microfilm indexes for the National
Archives of Canada for passengers arriving in Quebec 1865-69, with further
links to information for periods after 1869)
The Island Register Ships Page
(passenger lists of ships sailing from Scotland and the UK to Nova Scotia)
Passenger List: Angel Gabriel 1635
(passenger list for the Angel
Gabriel ship).
Fortune 1621 Passenger List
(passenger list for The Fortune, 1621)
Ship's Passenger Lists and Indexes
(information and links helpful for obtaining Canadian passenger immigration lists)
Submitted by a Fian 3 fennid
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