General tip for searching Passenger Lists.

[MarkyP]

I've been desperately trying to find my 2 x Great Grandfather, Samuel Jerome, who emigrated to Canada in 1909 on the passenger lists on FindMyPast and up until now I had no luck whatsoever. I had found his wife and children who followed him over a few months later but couldn't find him at all, despite trying with all the variety of spellings. I happened to be doing a search on Ancestry for another Jerome when I came across the Canadian Passenger Lists, and there he was was as plain as daylight. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been able to find him on FindMyPast and compared the images. It appears that Ancestry have transcribed from the original documents while FindMyPast has got their info from possibly a transcription of the original document, a copy of a copy if you like! Unfortunately FindMyPast have just used initials of the passengers while Ancestry have their full names, thus making it harder to search for. Having finally found Samuel on FindMyPast from the passenger number, the name looks nothing like Jerome, so it was no wonder that I couldn't find him. 

So just a tip for those searching the passenger lists for Canada and having no luck it might be worth searching Ancestry in the first instance! Hope that makes sense. 

Mark.

[Necromancer]

always preferred Ancestry - despite current performance issues     

[purlin]

 sound advice.

[MarkyP]

Having looked again, they both appear to be original transcriptions of a passenger list, but they are very different, the Ancestry one has a lot more info on it. Did they have 2 lists for some reason?

Am I able to post an image from both lists showing just my family members or would that be infringing copyright?

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi All,

I'm moving this topic to the Immigrants & Emigrants - General board, as I feel this could interest everyone who needs to search for ships and passengers.

It would be great if anybody who has any kind of general tips for searching, could add them here.

Please put requests for specific searches on seperate, individual topics on the appropriate country board.

Marky, I think excerpts - perhaps just the headings even ? - just big enough to show the differences would be very useful for everybody.

thanks,
Bob
 

[KarenM]

Hi Mark,

I believe the lists on Find My Past are those leaving England and the ones on Ancestry are the arrivals.  I find the arriving Canadian passenger lists helpful as they have their destination on the manifest.

You can also search the passenger lists for free at

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html

Karen

[MarkyP]

Thanks Karen, so I take it the lists are actually done by immigration or customs rather than the actual shipping line itself? Or is one done by immigration and one by the shipping line? You are right in that the incoming list offers far more information as you can see below.

[KarenM]

Hi Mark,

Found this on the Library and Archives site 

Passenger List/Passenger Manifest:
List of names of passengers on board a ship. Starting in 1865, preprinted forms were provided by federal immigration authorities to the shipping companies. The ship's purser filled in the names and relevant details of the passengers before they disembarked at the port of arrival.


K

[MarkyP]

Thanks Karen, I guess it's the equivalent of when we fly to the States now and have to fill in those immigration cards, or at least people did when I last went!