Finding an Ancestor on a Ship Arriving Canada 1854

Marilyn asked :

Hello, I am writing to ask if you know of any place I can find out about a ship that landed in Quebec or Montreal in the fall or early winter of 1854? I keep checking the list and they have only up to July. My people left Liverpool in August on the Megan Enterprise. I have documentation of them being in the US on December 10th of 1854. I am interested to see if there is any available log from that ship showing the deaths at sea.My gg grandmother died on the journey and was reportedly buried at sea.

Olive Tree Answer: Hi Marilyn, Finding a ships passenger list arriving in Canada before 1865 is a very challenging task. Prior to that year, it was not required that the passenger list manifests be kept. So finding one is a bit hit and miss. There is a nice little chart with links showing online projects with ships passenger lists (or substitutes) for BEFORE 1865 and AFTER 1865 at Filling in the Gaps

Have you seen the list of Names of individual passengers on ships sailing to Canada in the 1850s extracted from the Alms House Admission Foreigners & Nativity Records New York City, New York 1855-1858? These individuals sailed from their home countries to Canadian ports, then to New York in the 1850s and were admitted to the Almshouse for care. Although they were in the Almshouse after 1855, their ship arrivals were earlier.

As a gentle tip for writing a query, I have one comment. Putting this sentence in your email ("I keep checking the list and they have only up to July ") is frustrating for me, since I don't know what "the list" is, nor do I know who "they" refers to! But I hope my answer above is a help to you in your search.