How I Made My Search Through Passenger Lists A Little Smaller

[atth2o]

I don't know if anyone has posted this before but I thought I would let you know how I made my search a little smaller when looking for two different ships with family members.  I found them both using this method in one day.

This search worked for me because I knew the general time period my families left England and this time period fell within certain indexes on the below mentioned websites.  (I think it will work for 1890-1922)

I went to findmypast.com and did a search in their 1890-1960 passenger lists.  I listed all the possibilities with the year, departure port & arrival port.

Then I went to the Library & Archives of Canada website and did a search for ships leaving the selected port and arrival port in the year you wish to search.  This will give you a list of the possible ships your family was on.  Write down the different ships names.  (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/passenger/001045-100.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=688271a6d000fae04d5a18f1d4a4e733)

Go back to findmypast.com and do the same index search as before but now add the ships name.  Keep trying with different ships names till you come up with the entry you are looking for.  You have now pinpointed the name of the ship when you find the entry.

Again, go back to the Library & Archives of Canada and fill in the data with the ships name added this time.  If you are lucky, you may now only have 5 to 10 ships to search through rather than 100's.

Good Luck.  I hope this works for you

Nancy

[eilidh]

Hi Nancy,

Yes it certainly quickens up the elimination process. Now why didnt I think of that before trolling through 20 plus ships 

bye Helen

[atth2o]

Hi Helen,

I was doing the same thing as you and going through ship after ship till I noticed that on findmypast.com, they let you search by ship name.  I tried it out for a couple of people who posted here at rootschat and it worked.     Just thought I would pass it on to all.

Nancy