I need help finding a manifest from the port of disembarkation because my great great grandfather's name is not on the one for the port of arrival. The ship arrived in New York from England in 1854. How do I find that manifest taken when the ship left England?
Perhaps your ancestor travelled on a different ship, or on that ship but on a different voyage.
Ask Olive Tree Response: Hi Richard - Unfortunately for your needs, there is only one manifest taken for a ship. It is made at the port of departure and turned in at the port of arrival.
This is not correct.
ReplyDeleteIn some cases, there was a separate list retained in the departure country, often in a different language.
For example, for ships going from Hamburg, Germany, to New York City, USA, from 1855-1934, ancestry.com has each passenger on three lists:
"New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957" has the "manifest", written in English to be given to the U.S. immigration authorities (at Ellis Island or wherever)
"Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 Hamburger Passagierlisten, 1850-1934" has the lists that were written in German and kept in Germany.
"Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934." has a handwritten index, also written in German and kept in Germany.
If you want to get really technical about this, I guess we could say that the lists that were kept in Germany do not meet the legal definition of a "manifest" and only the lists brought onboard the ship were manifests. But I think the question was about passenger lists in generally, not just ones meeting the technical definition of a manifest.