At the request of one of my blog buddies, I decided to write this brief post, rather than a lengthy reply to a comment.
Thus far, I have been able to find the names of four immigrant ships on which my ancestors sailed. It’s tedious work, but I like that sort of research. I have found the transcriptions of three of the four passenger manifests, and I know the passenger numbers of my ancestors for the fourth ship. I just haven’t found the passenger manifest yet. I will.
The ships:
John Merrick
Tarquin
Doctor Barth
Fairfield
So, I haven’t seen any photos of any of the ships. They may have arrived too long ago for that, however, I’ve seen an oil painting online that depicts the Doctor Barth.
Reading the passenger manifest is very moving for me – particularly the column that notes any deaths on board the ship. Until yesterday, I didn’t recognize any of the names. The ship that I found yesterday had one of my ancestors in that column: a 3 1/2 year-old boy.
The New York Times published an article called Marine Intelligence that listed the ships that arrived each day, the ships that were cleared, and the ships that sailed etc. Right now, I am going through those articles, looking for the ship names that I already have. From the article, I can determine the length of the voyages and the number of passengers if I can’t find it on the manifest.
Sometimes, after the ship was cleared, a bit more information was published about the voyages. The Fairfield had a rough crossing, lost sails, rigging, bulwarks, and spars. The ship passed another ship that had been abandoned due to the same high waves and bad weather. That ship had lost its main mast, the mizzenmast, and the rudder.
I also use the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild website for more of my research. Must scoot. Goodnight has been at a sleepover and I have a couple more hours to use for research before I go pick her up. Two ships’ arrivals left to find in the New York Times Marine Intelligence.
This is really cool. I’ve found names of some ships too, but I haven’t had a chance to pursue documentation yet. I’m mostly still just taking the data from someone else’s research. Then I want to do my own verifying.
I agree with you that it is fascinating and moving to read the stories of the ships and the early days of settlements.
It’s fascinating stuff this genealogy – you have reminded me I need to tend to mine once more. I wish that, years ago when I visited Ellis Island, I’d realised that my great aunt had arrived on a ship from Southampton about 70 years previously.
Dancing: It is very fascinating! Unlike you, I have yet to visit Ellis Island because I would have never connected it to anyone of my ancestors until recently. As I look at their website, I still haven’t found my ancestors because their losts haven’t gone back far enough yet.