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The Lighter Side / How would iris recognition have coped with this?
« on: Friday 24 August 12 17:08 BST (UK) »
Being of a Scrooge-like disposition, I have waited for the window of opportunity provided by free access to the New York passenger lists before checking some notes I made years ago. I thought I might have misread the images - turns out I hadn't.
My wife's G-G-uncle William D Hunter emigrated to the US from Scotland in 1884, though he never took US nationality. He returned at regular intervals to visit his relatives (though not as often as his sister, who crossed the pond more than 60 times between 1888 and 1946)
In 1907 he landed in New York and the passenger list records his height as 5ft 7in and his eyes as brown. When he returned again in 1920 from Glasgow, he was 5ft 11 with blue eyes.
There's no doubt he's the same person: the final twist is that if they officials had checked his eyes more carefully the second time they might have noticed the total number had been reduced by 50 percent - he'd lost one in a train crash.
I may have to give up on family history - I'm having to take so many pinches of salt with the available "facts" that my blood pressure won't stand much more.
My wife's G-G-uncle William D Hunter emigrated to the US from Scotland in 1884, though he never took US nationality. He returned at regular intervals to visit his relatives (though not as often as his sister, who crossed the pond more than 60 times between 1888 and 1946)
In 1907 he landed in New York and the passenger list records his height as 5ft 7in and his eyes as brown. When he returned again in 1920 from Glasgow, he was 5ft 11 with blue eyes.
There's no doubt he's the same person: the final twist is that if they officials had checked his eyes more carefully the second time they might have noticed the total number had been reduced by 50 percent - he'd lost one in a train crash.
I may have to give up on family history - I'm having to take so many pinches of salt with the available "facts" that my blood pressure won't stand much more.