Puzzled where to go? for passenger list from UK to USA

[drakes]

  Any suggestions or hints for this puzzle would be great! Arnold family left England ard 1888 and appeared in Pennsylvania census 1900 with children listed as being born in various towns, PA - earliest birth of child in States was 1889. One child born in England 1887. Have checked Philadelphia Passenger Lists Index 1883-1948, and Boston, MA 1820-1943 (they eventually ended up in Boston) also checked Boston naturalization records.

   Ellis Island records don't begin until 1893(?) - is there any way to search UK records - given I don't know port of departure? 

  Also, occasionally checked the free Ships Immigra. List on the Web - a tremendous effort!

   

 thanks, drakes

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi drakes,

this isn't really my field, but I posted a topic on Immigrants about info. at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, where I noted

2)  Ships lists

The NA have some lists of ships for emigration and for immigration:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/familyhistory/migration/

I've not checked it out myself, so have a look, maybe you'll get lucky 

Good luck,
Bob

[tomf]

I had great luck on this new site:  www.castlegarden.org
Castle Garden is the New York ship arrival station for immigrants prior to Ellis Island 1892.

[eillo]

Hi Drakes

Have you found your ancestor in census records after his arrival?

The 1900, 1910 ,1920 and 1930 census identify citizenship status, with notations showing the individual was an Alien, or had started the Naturalization process or had his final papers. They also give the year of immigration. As well, 1920 gives the year of naturalization.

Finding his immigration year from the census would be Step One.

Step 2 would be finding his naturalization records (if he naturalized). These will have an immigration date. See http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/ for further help, and for links to online databases.

Step 3 is finding that ships list. Once you know your ancestor's state of entry, you can search
microfilms. Most states are indexed, so this will make your job slightly easier. You can order films in to a nearby Family History Centre, or have NARA do the job (once you have precise details)

Once you know your state, you can get a list of film numbers (NARA & FHC) at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nara_indexbyport.shtml

Scroll down to the state you want and click on the link, then find the film # you need

The staff of the National Archives will undertake a search of the original records for a fee but you must know the name of the ship, the date of arrival, and the port of arrival.

There are no published indexes strictly for English immigrants, but there is a search engine that searches the Internet for ships FROM England to USA or Canada

The search engine will search multiple websites for passengers sailing from England to USA.

http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/englishtousa.shtml

You say you searched Boston arrivals 1820-1943 BUT... the problem with the Boston arrivals is there is  an 8 1/2 year gap on M277 (which is titled Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston MA 1820-1891) The gap is from a April 1874 to 31 Dec 1882.

That is because there are no Federal records of any kind prior to 1883 (due to fire) and State Department copies were used in their place. BUT State Departments copies and abstracts only covered up to end of March 1874.

However the good news is that there ARE records for the missing years. They are not available at NARA, only at the Massachusetts State Archives

I believe though that there is an index on M625 which *does* cover those "missing" years. Finding an ancestor on that index in those missing years means you have to then write to
the Mass. State Archives for a copy of the passenger list page with your ancestor on it.

Good news though -- this JUST went online - the Massachusetts Archives has an online Boston passenger lists index  that covers 1848 to July 1891. It is not complete, but it might be
worth checking if your ancestors  arrived in Boston during this time frame..

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/PassengerManifestSearchContents.html