Passenger Lists

1. Passenger Lists Passenger lists reflect a timeline of immigration history when people from all over the world came to America's shores.

2. Passenger lists can contain information that is useful in tracing one’s ancestors and can include… • Passenger’s name • Gender & age • Country of origin • Name of ship • Port & date of departure • Port & date of arrival

3. These records have been kept at various locations/offices Immigrants entered the U.S. through many different ports including those at Boston, Galveston, and New Orleans. Those who came through New York were processed at one of three different locations based on the following timeline: Prior to 1820: No record keeping was required Starting in 1820: All names were recorded on ship’s passenger lists Prior to 1855: No processing, passengers just walked off the ship 1855-1890: Passengers processed at Castle Garden 1890-1891: Processing at the port of New York barge office 1892-1897: Passengers processed at Ellis Island 1897-1900: New York barge office (Ellis Island closed due to fire) 1900-1924: Processing at Ellis Island 1924-1954: Processing at Ellis Island (special cases only)

4. Library Holdings • The Orlando Public Library has numerous volumes of passenger lists in the genealogy department on the 4th floor. • Holdings include lists for various immigrant groups including Irish, German, Italian, and Spanish. • The call numbers for these books begin with the number 325. • While conducting your research, keep in mind that part of the assimilation process included changing or anglicizing names. The spelling or name you are familiar with may not resemble the name your ancestors had when they arrived.

5. An easier way to search passenger lists… • Certain researchers have indexed passenger lists from 100’s of sources • One of the most extensive indices was compiled by P. William Filby, the “Passenger and Immigration Lists Index”, Call No. 325.242 PAS • Consists of alphabetical listings with each entry showing an immigrant’s name, age, state/county of entry, source code and page number • The front index of this series lists sources used, person who indexed the source, as well as the source’s code, volume number , and page number • Index is supplemented every few years with additional entries

6. Sample Search On the 4th floor on the Orlando Public Library, we have the genealogy collection. Under the call number 325.242 PAS, we find Filby’s Passenger and Immigration Lists Index (pictured on the right). Let’s do a sample search for the name Georg Lauffer.

7. Sample Search Here we find that Georg Lauffer entered North America in the year 1871. This entry cites the source code “8057.5” and page number 120. We now need to go to the front index of Filby’s Passenger and Immigration Lists Index.

8. Sample Search The numerically listed source codes show that # 8057.5 is the Wuerttemberg Emigration Index, Volume 2. This source was indexed by Trudy Schenk and Ruth Froelke. You would now try to locate this book in our card catalog. If we own it, which we do in this case, you could find it on the shelf by its call number (RG 325.243 Sch) and view the book to see the actual emigration record.

9. Other library sources The Orlando Public Library also offers a collection of passenger lists on microfilm for the following major ports and date ranges: (these are also included in the Ancestry Library Edition database) Baltimore: 1820-1897 Boston: 1848-1891 Galveston: 1906-1951 New Orleans: Pre-1900 & 1900-1952 New York: 1820-1846 & 1897 -1902 Philadelphia: 1800-1906

10. Microfilm Machines at the Library • Your findings can be printed or saved onto a flash drive. • Images can be adjusted/manipulated using the “zoom”, “focus”, and “rotate” options on the machine • Printing is done on 11” x 17” sized paper for a more easily viewed image

11. Still more library sources for passenger list information • “They Came in Ships” by John Colletta, Call No. 325.2 COL • “How To Do Everything in Genealogy” by George Morgan, Call No. 929.1 MOR • “American Passenger Arrival Records : a guide to the records of immigrants arriving at American ports by sail and steam” by Michael Tepper, Call No. RG 325.242 TEP • “Mayflower index, compiled and edited for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants” by William Alexander McAuslan, Call No. RG 369.124 May • U.S. Federal Census – Starting in 1900 onward, enumerators asked for immigrant’s year of entry into the U.S

12. Online/Virtual Resources Ancestry Library Edition database - Available at any Orange County library location www.castlegarden.org - records and images of manifests are also available on Ancestry Library Edition www.ellisisland.org - records also available on Ancestry Library Edition All of these sources can be searched using a unique search engine created by Dr. Steven Morse. Let’s find out how this online tool works…

13. Dr. Morse’s search engine tool(www.stevenmorse.org/onestep/onestep.htm) Dr. Steven Morse has created a search engine (the one-step tool) which uses a “sounds like” feature (similar to Soundex) that searches for names that sound similar to ones used in your search criteria. The results include all possible variations due to misspellings, incorrect entries, etc. in the original record. This tool can be used when searching records at the following: • Pre-Castle Garden records on Ancestry Library Edition • Castle Garden records at both www.castlegarden.org and on Ancestry Library Edition • Ellis Island records at www.ellisisland.org

14. Accessing Ancestry Library Edition Although this resource is not available outside of our library system, you can access the Ancestry Library Edition database from any of our 15 library locations. Starting on our main web page at www.ocls.info, select “Databases” on the lower left-hand side of the screen.

15. Accessing Ancestry Library Edition On the following page, one can either select “Genealogy” from the subject list or choose “Listed by Name” at the top.

16. Accessing Ancestry Library Edition On the next screen, you would then select “Ancestry Library Edition” from the alphabetical listing.

17. Accessing Ancestry Library Edition The following page has a description of the database. Click on Ancestry Library Edition again to access the login screen.

18. Ancestry Library Edition Once logged in, you’ll see the the home page of the database, moving your cursor over “Search” at the top of the page, will reveal a menu of options. Select “Immigration & Emigration”.

19. Ancestry Library Edition You may enter your search criteria in the appropriate area near the top of the page or you can run a more exact search by choosing a specific location at the bottom. In this example, we will search for Hans Baldinger who arrived in the U.S. in 1913.

20. Ancestry Library Edition Our search brings us the following results. Selecting “View Image” will bring up the actual passenger list.

21. In this sample search, we find that Hans Baldinger arrived in New York from Liverpool, England aboard the Lusitania. Upon closer examination, you can see that Hans was traveling with his wife, Eva.

22. Passenger lists are an invaluable resource which can provide important information. Most Americans can discover what ship brought their ancestors to this continent or at least the date/year of their arrival. You may find your research to be quite simple or it may become more of a challenge. Be persistent, using the various sources discussed, and you can uncover the information that you seek.