Ship Research Approach

With George Wolff's Solider's Petition for Naturalization in hand, I now had the month and year of his arrival. However, I still could not locate him using Ancestry.com's indexes nor by browsing the collection. I needed a strategy to reduce the number of record ships passenger lists.

First, I used the telegram and newspaper publication listing of safe arrivals back to Norway provided by the Norway Heritage site. I actually landed on the month of August but I noticed the url was constructed with a numerical date, so I just replaced the 08 with a 07.

Like this:
http://www.norwayheritage.com/t_transatlantic.asp?month=08&year=1891
http://www.norwayheritage.com/t_transatlantic.asp?month=07&year=1891

Not a big deal but I didn't readily see their navigation method.

In the month of July 1891, at least 72 vessels were reported back to folks in Norway as safely arriving. From there, I did a find on page and noted only the vessels that went from Rotterdam and bound for New York. I had six vessels now.

• 7/12 SS Obdam
• 7/13 SS Schiedam
• 7/18 SS Didam
• 7/19 SS Maasdam
• 7/23 SS Amsterdam
• 7/29 SS Spaarndam

The site warns that the passenger lists would be 1-2 days off from this date. Good to know.

By then using the Ships Arriving at the Port of New York 1890-1891 from Jewishgen.org, I was able to see just that ships that had folks aboard that were from Poland, Austria, and Galacia. I might be subject to the problems of indexing again, but at least the mistake would have to be repeated hundreds of times. I didn't winnow the further but now I had some more wiggle room around the dates, perhaps more accurate.

• 7/12 (7/10)  SS Obdam
• 7/13 (7/14) SS Schiedam
• 7/18 SS Didam
• 7/19 (7/16) SS Maasdam
• 7/23 (7/24)  SS Amsterdam
• 7/29 SS Spaarndam

Down at the bottom of the page they kindly list the National Archive Publication number as well as the reel number for Family History Archive.

I am interested in reels 571 and 572 of publication M237. At the National Archives, I didn't just dive in. I read the accompanying pdf to the M237 publication. Fascinating stuff in the sense it explains what might be missing, why and how it was gathered and indexed.

Ancestry.com has this collection (that's where either their indexing accuracy or my searching methods had failed). I have to keep my eye open for a male around 15 years old, from either Poland or Austria. I have seen obfuscated lines where he could be...but I am not writing him off yet.

Perhaps in line 12 or 13?

A day later I have eyeballed 4 of the 6 ships passenger lists. I didn't mention before that I plan on doing the same thing for April of 1891, since other records have that as his arrival month and July as his birth month. I haven't found him or his family yet on a ship manifest, but I haven't given up yet!

I did see an awesome record where "STOWAWAYS" was written next to two names. I guess they were found out upon somewhere along the journey or upon disembarking. Forgot to mention that NorwayHeritage.com has some nice prints of ships for sale. Consider it a donation or a present- win either way!

Pay Dirt!

I've been working on some family history off and on for about year. In the beginning I made some assumptions about other people's research. I assumed that others took the time to analyze the details of the evidence provided and in good faith record their findings. Willy-nilly and lackadaisical analysis is actually more common. I've made plenty mistakes, I'll continue to make more but it's not due to lazy thinking.

Anyway, I write that part above to come clean on my weakness- geography. It is touted repeatedly, and with good reason, as an indespensible tool and resource for family history revelations. Just as one uses time to get folks in order - one also needs to uses space to put them in their place. And I am just awful at spatial analysis. Once you know you are terrible at something you are either inspired to improve or avoid it at all costs. I'm the avoid sort.

So once many, many other avenues of investigation had petered out, I was left with maps, cartographic references, atlases, survey lines, and rail road routes. I had looked at the shifting borders of Poland, Prussia, and Germany. I had already studied morphing county lines in Missouri and Arkansas to learn where records were actually held. I needed to dig another way.

I would have never thought to have such success with something simple with a geographical flavor to it. I found 2 birth certificates and 7 death certificates. I merely kept going county by county in, Texas for example,  and then went by name. I know- dead simple, right? Although they are not indexed, searching by the then revealed informant in the same or neighboring county (of course not by memory, with the county map in another browser) kept the thread going for quite some time.

Resources: 
http://genealogy.az.gov
http://www.fold3.com/title_479/texas_death_certificates/
http://www.fold3.com/title_478/texas_birth_certificates/