On 8 Jul 2005 at 9:38, Eddie Thomas wrote:
I'm looking into the possibility that some of my ancestors
emigrated from Wales in the mid-1870s and settled in
Nanticoke, Pa. Although I can't as yet say for certain, I
think it was probably 1874 when they entered the States.
Based on this limited information, can anyone suggest which
would have been the likely port of entry - New York or
Philadelphia? Or neither!
Ed,
It could be any port. It could even be a Canadian port of
entry because that was much cheaper than going to a US one
in that time period.
There are indexes to ships passenger lists for most ports
for the time period of interest to you. There is no index
for NY except on
Ancestry.com
You can get a list of film numbers (NARA & FHC) at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nara_indexbyport.shtml
Scroll down to the state you want and click on the link,
then find the film # you need, then decide whether to order
it in to a nearby FHC or have NARA do a lookup.
The staff of the National Archives will undertake a search
of the original records for a fee.
To find your nearest FHC you can go to
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp
There are some ideas for researching hard to find
ancestors on ships lists after 1820 at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/usaaft1820.shtml
You might also want to try naturalization records, if you
need to narrow your time span for looking.
There is an explanation and Resource Guide to
Naturalization Records at
http://naturalizationrecords.com/
There are also many links to searchable online
naturalization records at
http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/
Choose your state of interest from the list at the bottom
of the page then click on ONLINE records.
If you have to search Canadian ports, it's a bit trickier
because they are not indexed for the time period you want.
To find a passenger you will need to know an exact date of
arrival.
There is no easy way to search Canadian arrival records for
this unindexed period other than reading microfilm
The National Archives of Canada (NAC) holds immigration
records from 1865 to 1935.
Ships are on the reel, in order of arrival. You can find
the
details at this URL
http://www.archives.ca/02/020202_e.html
If you want to order filmed passenger lists (remember they
aren't indexed!), a list of NAC microfilm numbers for
passenger lists to Canada 1865-1922 can be found at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/filmnos_can1865.shtml
If you want to try your luck searching transcribed ships
passenger lists online, passenger lists for Ships to
Canada
after 1865 are freely available at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tocanp05.shtml
Lorine
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tousa_pa.shtml
Passenger Lists to PA
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/searchpaships.shtml
Custom Search Engines Internet-wide for Ships to PA
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/filmnos_pa.shtml
NARA & FHC film nos. from 1820 for immigration