Which leads into a very popular subject, “How do I find my family in Ellis Island records? I heard they changed their names there!” A popular misconception is that all immigrants sailed by the Statue of Liberty to get to America. The second misconception is that Port Authorities anglicized names randomly.
Once you have pinpointed the ancestor who ‘came over from the Old Country’, you have to ask more questions before you can find the ship. The most important question is WHEN DID THEY ARRIVE. If you suspect they arrived between 1860 and 1930, the first place to look is the Federal Census taken in 1900 ,1910, 1920 and 1930. Those censuses are very complete records and the census taker asked the question, “What year did you arrive or immigrate, and from what country?” District court records contain some information in later Naturalization records. NAR has copies. Ancestry.com has huge naturalization and immigration INDEXES. In general, you will not find women in Naturalization records. Women didn’t vote before 1920, and didn’t need to prove citizenship. A father may have “arrived” first to check out the opportunities in America before “immigrating” with his family on a later trip. The first immigration records began in 1820. The Steerage Act of 1819 required ship owners to collect information from steerage class passengers as part of the ship’s manifest. The captain was held responsible for verifying the immigrants had enough food and cash to survive the trip. Steerage passengers were treated as cargo and had to feed themselves. An officer of the ship was responsible for listing names on the manifest AT THE PORT OF DEPARTURE. This where language barriers and heavy accents created anglicized names close to what the officer heard from the passenger. Many immigrants choose to retain that name later. It was NOT a permanent name change forced on someone. Receiving stations simply relied on the ship manifest as a source of names. The government didn’t change names. When looking for immigration records, try many variations of the surname. This is why knowing the year of immigration and departure port is so important. It allows you to narrow down your search. You don’t want to sort through 1.5 million records. Please note, First Class passengers may not be on the ship’s manifest. The well-to-do were above such scrutiny. I WONDER IF THE NATIVES HAD AN IMMIGRATION AGENT AT PLYMOUTH ROCK.
Next week we explore where to look for ship records based on the year of arrival.
As always Ed Peck can be reached through this newspaper or the White River Museum.
By ED PECK
Special to the Herald Times
