American records

[Puffin81]

I think I have a relative who left the uk in sept 1914 to the USA.

I can find a record on a ship leaving Liverpool.  Would any record be taken on his arrival? If so where would I find that.

Also I believe he came back after a short period to enlist in the army to in fight Ww1 by April 1915, but I where would I find passenger lists of boats leaving America?

[fastfusion]

One site we use frequently for this is >

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1368704

or google Ellis Island passenger lists.......


also one looks for passenger lists in NYTimes indexes or sites like Fulton Postcards where newspaper articles often has lists........
Around wartime it becomes a little difficult in some circumstances......

if the person is not alive , would you consider putting up some detail;s and SKS may find the material  ,    I havent done passenger lists for a while for USA but Detroit, Florida and New York were majors in immigration.. Others will provide one with more details than I, so good luck with that.


*amendment >     you state chap joined services,   was that US armed forces or UK    cos if he had joined up , with US they will not nessecarily have released name of boat transport to Europe.... unless u get his personell file......         clarification on this may be nessecary on a reply post

[Erato]

He probably entered the US at New York.  The New York records can be searched here:
http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/

There are records for other ports [Boston, Philadelphia, California, etc.] at FamilySearch:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list/?page=1&region=UNITED_STATES

[shellyesq]

There are some helpful links to US passenger lists and passenger lists to/from other countries here:

http://www.germanroots.com/onlinelists.html
http://www.germanroots.com/international-passenger-lists.html

[Puffin81]

I can find a Robert R Heap ging to philidelphia in sept 1914 on the ship merion

However I can't find any record of him entering America. 

Then I know he was back by April 1915 as he came back to join up (which is confirmed by a newspaper record) but can't find a record of this either

A short time to go to America and to come back to sign up when he could have signed up in sept surly as the war had started then, but chose to leave

[jorose]

If the ship sailed to Philadelphia you won't find him on Ellis Island, that's only for NY arrivals.

Here he is in the Philadelphia arrivals:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KFD7-9BV
relative at home: Father, Mr J Heap, 6 Black Lane, Kendal.
relative in US: Sister, Mrs Martha Wilson, 1205 Wise Ave, S.E. Roanoke VA (he was heading to Roanoke)

[Puffin81]

That's brill and I've more places to search him coming back

I wonder why he went for such a short time.  Was there a campaign of sorts to find people to come back to fight?

On the top it says accompanied by one, does that mean he was not alone?

You guys amaze me when I'm stuck u help me get moving again

[Puffin81]

Is there anyway to find out who he was with?

The record shows one.

On others I've found whoever the person was with has been on the list either above or below but in this case I don't think so

[fastfusion]

puffin......   probably not relevent to u but i had a Brit subject immigrate to Canada then go back to UK for war.....    he also was a problem child to find but eventually found a census which explained all as to his war service.......   wasnt war service at all , although classified as such.... he was in the Navy as part of the Coast Guard.......   but anyways after the war he recieved a war pension for services rendered....  so I guess there are more stories to out kin than we will ever be able to fully comphrehend but thats part of the challenge we face doin this caper.....   have fun....