Passenger Ship Lists

Robert W. Marlin recommends a trip back to the old world via passenger ship lists.

Departure of an emigrant ship in the 1850s. The odds of one of your ancestors having slipped aboard an emigrant ship unnoticed are slim; the odds of one of your ancestors having left the ship unnoticed are slimmer still.

History of the Lists
Ship passenger lists existed several hundred years before America became a nation. Cargo manifest and passenger information were in many cases part of the captain’s log of a vessel. Keeping this type of record was not a government mandate. There are thousands of these documents stored in archives around the world. Many of these types of lists relating to early American colonial arrivals are available in pamphlet and book form in many historical societies and state archives in the US. Although the US became a nation in 1776, the mandatory keeping of these records did not begin for more than 40 years afterwards.

Abraham Korris’ Declaration of Intention provided a step in the right direction, although both the name of the ship and the date of arrival were inaccurate.

There is little doubt that this part of genealogical research is by far the most difficult and least understood. To approach it without doing some homework beforehand is to court failure. This can be prevented by learning all you can about your ancestors after they arrived in America. This includes a thorough study of the paper trail they created since their arrival and may include city directories, federal and state censuses, death certificates and immigration and naturalization documents. Many of these documents can save you a lot of time and effort in your research.

The National Archives Immigration & Passenger Arrivals Catalog is the best source of information regarding passenger records, covering the period between 1820 and 1954. Although many researchers refer to all this material as “passenger arrival records,” this is a misnomer. Some of this film is actually US Customs passenger lists, and other parts of it are Immigration and Naturalization Service lists. The catalog covers most eastern seaboard ports of arrival, as well as some Gulf of Mexico ports as far west as New Orleans.

Due to the complexity of this material, I would not even attempt to go into any detail regarding the history of shipping, or how and why passenger lists were kept. Instead, I will try to explain what I consider the best way to attempt to find people who are on these lists.

The Oceanic was a typical passenger liner on the North Atlantic route in 1901. As can be seen, sailing ships were still very much in use at this time.

Availability
The lists are available for the period 1820 to 1954. However, at the present time many of these lists are not indexed. When dealing with earlier (pre-1900) records, even the years that are indexed are not necessarily helpful. Many early passenger manifests contain little more than the name, age, and country of origin of the immigrant. In the early days, only as much information as was required by law was recorded. Later lists include far more information about each individual. Like naturalization procedures and vital records, passenger lists went through an evolution process. The most detailed information is contained in the lists which were compiled after the turn of this century.

It is important to allow for spelling variations, as the author found when he found the name “Budiansky” spelled as “Bajowsky” in the Furst Bismarck’s manifest.

At some point the steamship companies were held responsible for the return passage of persons rejected by immigration officials. They probably sought recourse for payment of the return fare. How could they accomplish this without some detailed record of who the person was and where he came from? At least a half dozen people have told me the old wife’s tale about a grandfather who successfully stowed away on passenger ships out of Hamburg, Germany. In each case, the man had gone down to the pier, mingled with the crowd and then slipped aboard the first boat to America. They never were able to explain how he got off the boat in the middle of New York Harbor, where each passenger went through a check-off list before being ferried to Ellis Island to pass through American immigration officials. Aside from the fact that stowaways were thought to be in the same class as western horse thieves, it is hard to believe anyone would buy this story. I mention it to point out the thoroughness of record-keeping on both sides of the ocean.

After the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia in 1939, the Bata shoe company picked up its roots and shipped the entire operation, including 66 families, to Canada, where the company still prospers. Our picture shows some of the group aboard the Empress of Australia on the journey.

Beyond the National Archives
Although many beginners consider the National Archives the chief source of indexes for passenger arrival information, it is not the only source, nor is it the best. This is because this organization is not prepared to do in-depth genealogical research. Most researchers fill out a form containing as much information as possible and after waiting weeks for a reply, it is usually negative. Over the years I have submitted this form at least 40 or 50 times. Only once were they ever able to locate a passenger list for me. Part of the problem is that they only search the exact spelling of the name you supply. The quality of some of the index film is so bad that there are thousands of index cards which simply cannot be read. If the card containing your ancestor’s entry happens to fall into this group you are out of luck. The report you get is “not found.” This is where doing your homework can pay off the most. If you have diligently followed the paper trail leading back to passenger lists you can still find the ship and passenger list without the index.

The old and the new. The Campania on the left, the largest liner at the turn of the century, is shown next to the Great Britain, which had held that position but here looks awfully dated.

In addition to passenger arrival lists in America there were lists kept at their point of departure. The vast majority of immigrants to America passed through two major German ports, Bremen and Hamburg. Each had detailed passenger lists of all people who left those ports. Most of the Bremen lists were destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II. However, the Hamburg Lists are available and are used daily by people every day at various branches of the LDS Family History Centers. They are indexed and cover the time period from about 1856 to 1934. The film rolls usually have to be ordered from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for viewing at your local Family History center. To find out more about them, I suggest you visit your local FHC library before proceeding. Unfortunately, these lists are handwritten in German script. In spite of this, the task is not insurmountable. Many English names are almost identical in German. There are several good books on the shelves of most libraries that help with this problem.

A number of documents led me to passenger lists which I was able to access without the use of indexes. One was the Declaration of Intention To Become A Citizen which was filed by my grandmother’s brother. He stated in the declaration that he arrived in new York on May 22, 1906, aboard the Norland. A quick check of the Morton Allan Directory of Steamship Arrival verified that the S. S. Noordland arrived in New York on May 21 of that year. His information was slightly in error. He had misspelled the name of the ship and his date of arrival was off by a day.

My paternal grandmother came from Russia. Her mother’s family name was Budiansky. Many family members later became Budin, Budinoff and Boudin. I have found more than a dozen other spellings of these new surnames. When leaving Russia a member of this family was Daniel Budiansky. In America he became Daniel Budinoff. From a naturalization paper I learned that he and his family had arrived in New York on June 15, 1891 aboard the S.S. Furst Bismarck. Knowing the name of his wife and children made my job a lot easier. However, the spelling of the surname on the manifest was Bajowsky. If I had been looking in an alphabetical index or even a soundex index I probably would have been out of luck.

Gussie Budinoff was the granddaughter of Daniel Budinoff. Her father Isaac had brought the family to America in 1893. Gussie’s Declaration of Intent To Become a Citizen once again made my job simple.

Further Reading National Archives: Immigrant and Passenger Arrival Records www.nara.gov/publications/microfilm/ immigrant/immpass.html New York State Library: Passenger Lists and Alien Disposition Records www.nysl.nysed.gov/genealogy/ tracimmi.htm Free Library Of Philadelphia: Passenger Lists www.library.phila.gov They Came In Ships by John P. Colletta (Ancestry: 1993). Immigrant & Passenger Arrivals: A Select Catalog of National Archives Film Publications (1983). ISBN: 0-911333-05-3. Morton Allan Directory Of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals: 1890-1930 (Genealogical Publishing Company). ISBN: 0-8063-0830-3. The Ellis Island Source Book by August C. Bolino (Kensington Historical Press: 1985). Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States by Christina K. Schaefer (Genealogical Publishing Company: 1997). ISBN: 0-0863-1532-6 Locating Your Immigrant Ancestor: A Guide to Naturalization Records by James C. Neagles and Lila Lee Neagles (Everton Publishers: 1975). American Passenger Arrival Records by Michael Tepper (Genealogical Publishing Company: 1993). ISBN: 0-8063-1380-3. Ships Of Our Ancestors by Michael J. Anutsa (Genealogical Publishing Company: 1983). ISBN: 0-8063-1381-1. Hamburg Passengers From The Kingdom Of Poland And The Russian Empire: 1855 - June 1873 by Geraldine Moser and Marlene Silverman (Landsman Press: 1996).

There are occasions when a passenger manifest and an immigration list will appear on the same roll, one behind the other. I discovered this accidentally, when I checked the passenger arrival manifest of the S. S. Pretoria looking for Harry Margolin, my paternal grandfather’s son from his first marriage. Finding the entry for Harry Margolin only took five minutes. However, the film was so light that it was impossible to make a photocopy. Even at maximum setting, all the machine produced was a blank sheet. In sheer frustration I started to rewind the film. After several quick turns I realized that I was going in the wrong direction. As I started to reverse, my eyes zeroed in on the name Margolin. Inasmuch as I had just left that entry, my first thought was that I had done something to the film. A closer inspection showed that I had accidentally stopped on the name Harry Margolin again. However, this time I was not looking at the passenger manifest. I was looking at another list. It turned out to be an immigration list for the same ship. This additional list included information which was not included in the passenger manifest. This was something I hadn’t run into before. A passenger manifest and an immigration list, one behind the other, on the same film reel. In any case the information provided about Harry Margolin was extremely detailed. These records are filled with this type of inconsistency. When dealing with these records, be prepared for the unexpected.

If you have checked the index personally and know for certain that an index card does not exist, all is not lost. Redouble your efforts to locate the person’s Declaration of Intention or Petition for Naturalization. A death certificate might also be helpful. Many early death certificates asked if the deceased was a citizen and if so, how long the person had resided in the US. This could be a valuable clue about where to start searching the passenger indexes.

If you can locate either the name of the ship or the date of arrival, it is still possible to check the ship manifest itself. Even if you suspect that your ancestors may have immigrated from the port of Hamburg, it would certainly pay to check the index.

Even here, the bottom line is that the amount of effort you put in will determine the degree of your success. I sometimes put things aside for lack of immediate results, but I seldom give up. I let it go for a period of time and try again. There is always another way to approach the problem.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 1998 issue of Family Chronicle.