Author Topic: Massachusetts Passenger Lists Database (1848-1891)  (Read 7380 times)

Offline johnnyboy

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Massachusetts Passenger Lists Database (1848-1891)
« on: Friday 01 September 06 17:07 BST (UK) »
Greetings RootsChatters One and All:

The State of Massachusetts has a searchable database of passenger ship lists arriving in Boston between 1848 and 1891. Before you click on the URL below, read carefully.

The database is not complete. Apparently, the names included are the most common names (that is a paraphrase of what I was told by someone that I spoke with at the Massachusetts State Archives recently). Updates are supposedly being made monthly.

As an example of the scope of the coverage, if you type SMITH and hit Search, you get untold names. If you search JONES, you get no results. Thus, type your family name and cross your fingers.

You can limit the search by filling in all of the boxes, but you can also search the database other ways, such as by name of ship, by a single date (make the  begin and end date the same, and by a date range in which begin date and end date are different.

Here is the URL of the introductory page: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/PassengerManifestSearchContents.html

The search button is at the bottom of the page, all dressed up in blue.

Updated link as of 2024:  https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ArchivesSearch/Passengermanifest.aspx
ENGLAND (all Yorkshire but one)
SLATER: Ovenden, Halifax, and Massachusetts
DOBSON, LONGBOTTOM: Thornton (Bradford)
DRURY: Darton, Halifax, and Massachusetts
NEVIL(LE): Wigan (Lancs.), Darton
MEGSON: Dewsbury, Ossett
GARSIDE: Woolley, West Bretton

SCOTLAND
ROBERT HENDRY: b. 1856, Who-knows-where-shire, Scotland; 1882 to US
DEMPSTER, HOUSTON: Lesmahagow, Glasgow, and Massachusetts
GALBRAITH, MEIKLE: Kirkmichael, Ayr.; Hamilton, Glasgow, and Massachusetts