Think Outside the Box When Looking for a Ship's Passenger List

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.

Looking For an Ancestor in Canada, eh?

Fiona asked some very intriguing questions on my AskOliveTree blog about her Anderson family from Scotland to Ontario Canada. Because I covered so many different aspects of Canadian genealogy in my response, I decided to publish Fiona's question and my answers here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog  Here is Fiona's question:

George Anderson was born in 1806 or 1807 in Roxburghshire in Scotland. Jessie Powell was born about 1805 also in Roxburghshire. We don't know when they married however their son Archibald McLaren Anderson was born in Scotland in 1822. Their daughter Janet was born in 1835 but we are not sure if she was born in Canada or Scotland. We know George, Jessie and Janet (and their youngest child Elizabeth) all died in Canada in the Huron County area. We have photographs of their tombstones in the Wingham Cemetery. George died in 1857, Jessie, Janet and Elizabeth all died in 1880. We know Archibald arrived in Australia from New York in November 1852. We can then follow his movements from then..

Our questions are as follows:

1. When did the Anderson family migrate to Canada from Scotland?

2. What happened in 1880 to cause three deaths in the one family?

3. Was Janet born in Canada? We believe Elizabeth was born in Huron County in 1848.

Fiona - I edited your email for space reasons and removed question 4, preferring to focus on your first 3 questions. First I must thank you for a well-written query. You summed up what you knew, what you don't know and what you found out. You also provided me with a list of resources you have used. Well done!

And now, on to my answers. I hope you'll be pleased with what I found and my suggestions for further research.

I don't usually do actual research for a question but yours intrigued me as the death registrations for Jessie and her two daughters should be online on Ancestry.com and on FamilySearch. These will show the cause of death for each and thus would answer your question #2.  So I had a quick look and found all three. There are many extra clues in death registrations too.

Death registrations show that Jessie died of old age. Janet (who is registered as Jeanette) shows her place of birth as Dumfries Township Canada and her cause of death as consumption. The informant for both deaths was John Anderson, a Miller of Wingham. I suspect John was a son of Jessie and George because in 1870 he buried his 3 month old daughter Jessie - no doubt named in honour of his mother.

I had to hunt for a bit for Elizabeth's death registration as she died a married woman and so was under the name Elizabeth Linklater (her husband being Peter). Elizabeth also died of consumption in 1880.

Suggestions for Further Research

Census Records

Since her death registration shows Janet/Jeanette born in Dumfries ca 1835, you could look for the family in the 1851 census. Much of the 1851 census for Ontario is missing but being curious I decided to have a look at Canadian census records on Ancestry.com. Sure enough there they are - not in Huron Co. but in Blenheim Twp Oxford County.

The family consists of George, Jessy [sic], Janett [sic] 18, John 16, William 14, Margaret 12, George 10, Isabella 6 and Elizabeth 4. All the children are listed as born in C.W. which is Canada West, which is present day Ontario.

Widen Your Search Parameters
Don't forget to expand your search if you can't find someone first time. So even if you think the family is in a certain location in a certain year, if you don't find them, widen your search parameters - don't exclude other locations.


Wildcards Are Your Friend
Use wildcards. Jessie was found as Jessy. Janet was found as Jeannette and Jeannet. This is where wildcards are useful.  A search for Jes* for example would pick up Jessie, Jessy and any other variant spelling that begins with Jes.

The family is still in Blenheim Twp in 1861. Jessie is now a widow. They must have had a bit of money for they are shown as living in a 2-storey brick home. Most of their neighbours were in log or frame houses either 1 or 1 1/2 storeys.

Land Records 

George is listed as a farmer so it is possible you will find him in land records, which would narrow the timeline for his immigration from Scotland. You could now get the Agricultural Census for each census year. The Agricultural portion of the census will provide you with a land location and more details such as how much land was pasture, how much was cultivated, and so on.  Few Agricultural Census are  online so you may have to order microfilm in to a library or family history center for this.

You can also check the CLRI which is the Ontario Land Record index to find if George was a first time buyer of Crown land, and if so you will then have an exact year of purchase and under what conditions he acquired his land. This will also indicate if there might be a petition on file.

There may also be tax or assessment records available for the pre-1851 time period for Oxford County. I would also check Waterloo County as that is where Dumfries Township is located.

Immigration Records (Ships Passenger Lists)

Unfortunately Ships Passenger Lists to Canada before 1865 are few and far between. It was not a requirement that passenger lists be archived before that year. There are some surviving lists but they are few and far between. The best idea would be for you to go to  the online project called Filling in the Gaps and check each online project to look for your ancestors. The online projects include shipping company records, steamship records for bringing passengers down the St. Lawrence River once they landed in Canada, Immigration Officer records and so on.

Summary

Based on what I found online we now know that your family arrived in Canada ca 1835 or earlier. If Archibald was born in Scotland in 1822 you now have a timeline of 1822-1835.

We know a few more children from the census records. It is possible that by researching each of their movements you will find out more about the family in Scotland and in Canada and their arrival. There may be an obituary for one of their children which gives details of the parents' arrival in Canada.

One item of great interest I think is that three of George and Jessie's children gave their mother's maiden name as SLATER at their marriages. You have her maiden name as POWELL. It's the kind of discrepancy that is great fun to research!

Please do let us know how it goes. I'm quite interested in this family now.