Charlene G. sent Olive Tree Genealogy an email asking about Ships
Passenger Lists from Ireland in the 1840s. I think my answer to her
question (below) may be of interest to other genealogists
I am specifically looking for Irish passenger ship records from
1845-1847, the probably year(s) that my great-great grandparents
immigrated to the United States. For many years I have been searching
Irish passenger ships arriving at the port of New York. Because Ellis
Island was not yet established, I assume my Irish great-great
grandparents entered the U.S. via Castle Garden. Can you tell me if ALL
ship passenger records for the years 1845-1847 have been transcribed?
Lorine's Answer: First let me clear up some possible confusion.
Ellis Island and Castle Garden were processing centers. The port of
arrival was New York and that is the arrival port you want to look for
if you are positive your ancestor arrived via New York. You will not
find ships lists giving a port of arrival as "Ellis Island" or "Castle
Garden" since they were simply the processing areas used at different
time periods for arrivals in the port of New York.
The short answer to your last question is YES. All known ships passenger
lists arriving in New York have been transcribed, indexed and are found
on
Ancestry
. If you are searching the Castle Garden website be aware that it
includes arrivals in ports other than New York and as far as I know, it
is not complete for the port of New York.
If you are unable to find your ancestors, be sure you search other ports
of arrival. Also you might wish to look for ships arriving in
Canada
as it was much cheaper to come in that way than go directly to America.
Just be aware that before 1865 ships arriving in Canadian ports did not
have to keep their passenger lists. But there are alternate lists you
can search. See
Filling in The Gaps for help.
You should also be sure you are using
wildcards if you are searching on
Ancestry
. The early ships passenger lists are often difficult to read and your
ancestor's surname might be badly mangled or misread. Try widening your
search parameters too. Leave out first names. Use only a surname (with
wildcards to pick up variant spellings such as SM*TH* which would get
results for SMITH, SMYTH, SMYTHE etc. ) and an approximate year of
birth.
