10
As @TomH indirectly suggests, it is possible to request your father's Service Records from the UK's Ministry of Defence. See https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records, in particular the section "Service records of deceased Service personnel".
Obtaining Service Records has a bad reputation because of the time it takes and the ...
8
There are multiple approaches to this problem -- here are my recommendations for how to go about the search.
Important note: Do not assume there is only one passenger list -- many families had family members who went back and forth multiple times before settling in the USA.
Find your great-grandfather's arrival (and find his naturalization records, if any ...
7
The book They Came in Ships by John Phillip Colletta has a flowchart. He suggests starting with the following:
Your ancestor's full, real name
the approximate age at arrival
the approximate date of arrival
From there he suggests different types of searches, depending on the time period, and the other information you may have, such as the port of entry, ...
5
The manifest got his names switched. (That is, the clerk wrote Leonidas in the "Family Name" column and V. Zotos in the "Given Name" column.)
Index: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJK1-6M5
Image: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TQ-X92M?i=745&cc=1368704 (Roll 1665, vol 3673-3675, 21 Apr 1911, image 746 ...
5
Where else might information be lurking about these births and deaths?
Death Records and Cemetery Information
The Family History Library has a Register of New York City death records (update: this is no longer available to read online) describing what records the FHL holds. I haven't read the entire 209-page document yet, but when I was skimming it, this ...
4
The Charley-man by E.R. Marcil is definitive. The tonnage of 2003 is under the old rules. In 1855 Moorsom's Rules were applied and became the international standard within a few years. Under the new rules the tonnage was 1705 registered, 1774 gross. Ultimately this ship was in Norwegian hands being in service until 1896, an exceptionally long life for a ship ...
4
When I am trying to learn more about a topic or place and trying to find records that might mention my family or my research subjects, I follow a checklist I made for myself:
Learn what records might have been created in a particular time and place.
Research which of those records might still exist, and which records are accessible to the public.
Research ...
4
To gather more information about the operations of ships, establish their identity, just as you would for a person, and about the company which operated them. With ships, just like people, there can be more than one with the same name. You might search for the shipbuilder, the Master's name, the company who operated the ship, or the owner's name. All ...
4
The passenger list for the final voyage of the SS Galway Castle is available at Ancestry courtesy of the National Archives (UK).
The twist is that the passenger list is under a different ship's name, the "Rhodesia." However, the following items on the passenger list all correspond to those of the Galway Castle on her final voyage:
Official Number (...
4
Passenger lists were not required for travel within the UK, or even between the UK and Europe. See TNA Passenger Lists Guide. The one exception to that is when "a ship called at more than one European port before travelling further afield." And vice versa for inbound traffic. So far as I know all passenger traffic between Ireland and mainland Britain was ...
3
The Scandinavian America Line went from Copenhagen via Christiana (Oslo) to New York round the north side of the British Isles according to the map on http://www.norwayheritage.com/scandinavian-america-line-voyages.htm
It's only a small partial map but I can hardly imagine that big a discrepancy between reality and the map as to turn left into the North ...
3
I couldn't find a copy of the 1881 edition of the Lloyds Register of Shipping online (it's possible that your local reference library may have a copy). The nearest volume that I could find is the 1883 edition which has been scanned and made available on Archive.org.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any ship named Bancroft listed in that year.
Some ...
3
In cases like this, I often search for the ship itself and mine those websites and newspaper accounts for clues about where records might be found. Newspapers of the day may not have accurate information in the early accounts, but they can be helpful in establishing a timeline of events.
The website The Red Duster has an entry for the SS Galway Castle in its ...
3
One potentially very good source of information is the WWI and WWII Alien Registration files. In particular, the later is still mostly in existence, and contains the ship by which the person immigrated. These can be requested from the National Archives. They have a great FAQ to ask how to find the record.
3
I think the quickest route to verifying this family legend will be to determine the ship your great grandfather travelled on to the United States. My understanding (as a non-American) is that this is a detail likely to be recorded on a Naturalization record.
Once you have the ship's name, locating a passenger list for any voyage it may have made in the ...
3
I usually start with the Crew List Index Project. That site has various finding aids, including one to list ships by name. Entering "Gosforth" as the ship's name (without the quotes but I'm sure you knew that) gives several ships but fortunately the Ship's List link in the question gives us a date and tonnage - the latter matches exactly the ship with ...
2
I'd like to address the question that was not-quite-explicitly asked, "[How can I find] high value places to focus my research?"
This is a question we all have to consider when deciding to spend money on a subscription service or when deciding to travel to an archive. It helps immensely to have a research plan, so you know the place, the time, and the ...
2
I have found the following information about the Ship Constance and also the Antelope. As I can see it this will tie in all your information and solve some of your problems.
Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List (NSW : 1844 - 1860), Monday 11 December 1854, page 243 : Heading Wonga Wonga & Telegraph.
Vessels advertised at Boston on 24th ...
2
I would like to confirm that Eliza Davey Wills (who you mention in the question), Richard her brother and his wife Louisa came to NZ in 1863 aboard the Accrington. They arrived in Lyttelton 5 Sept 1863. Eliza married Melchesideck Taylor 29 November 1864 at Trinity Church, Lyttelton. They are my GG Grandparents.
From Eliza's marriage date and location it ...
2
One possibility might be that he was not 'crew' in the sense of a merchant seaman, which would have required seaman's credentials, but working in service to one of the cabin passengers.
See this page at the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives, which has many examples of the different forms of passenger tickets from the steamship companies. One of the tickets shown ...
2
One clue I would consider is the rank mentioned for the individual in the linked question. The Steward in 18th century British navy was a civil position, hired by the Captain. If we look at Wikipedia page describing Royal Navy Ranks and look at the description in the entry for Steward:
A more senior cook and servant, usually reserved for flagships and
...
2
As per https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/a/15574/6485, European emigrants to America via England usually landed at an East Coast port (most often Hull or Dover) and took a train to a West Coast port (e.g Liverpool) to take a ship to America.
So it is unlikely that your Great Grandma stayed on the same ship throughout, and you should follow the advice on ...
2
When you say you know the ship, do you mean you know the ship's name or have you seen the passenger list (image)?
The passenger list page headers in that period should have originating port information. It may show that that ship's voyage started in England or it may show another European country, not necessarily Russia. It is possible that your ancestor ...
1
This problem is a good illustration of how we can create problems for ourselves by extracting information from records and leaving the context behind.
Scrolling back two images on the microfilm (New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891, from NARA microcopy publication M237, Roll 46) to image 174 also gives you the name of the ship's master, Charles K Crocker.
...
1
My grandmother and mother aged 3 were aboard The Galway Castle when it was torpedoed and were two of the fortunate survivors. I have just unearthed two cuttings one from (I think) a Bath Local paper "Bath victms on torpedoed liner" and the other from the Telegraph "The Galway Castle - List of saved and missing" - Both are in a poor ...
1
For the chosen example of Ellis Island, you are trying to make a distinction where no distinction exists. A passenger list (which might be a passenger arrival or passenger departure list) in this context is a specific type of ship's manifest.
There are other instances where we have passenger lists that are not strictly a ship's manifest (see the US ...
1
Since the Main's last voyage to New York was in 1890, I can't get an estimate of the transit time from a later passenger list. One possibility is to look at the Main's sister ships and see what the transit time was for other ships whose possible speed was around 13 knots.
But another clue for the answer is in the question itself. The page for the Main at ...
1
I can contribute three names to the passenger list that you seek.
My grandmother Margaret Malcolm was traveling with my father Douglas Malcolm and infant uncle George on the Galway Castle when it was torpedoed. Margaret and Douglas survived but George did not and is buried in, I believe Plymouth.
1
Here is the link to the Library and Archives database for immigration through the port of Quebec: http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/passenger-lists/passenger-lists-quebec-port-1865-1900/Pages/introduction.aspx
1
The answer from @JanMurphy stimulated me to look harder, and provided some pointers in which direction to proceed. By doing that I found:
The Ozships website records that the Constance arrived at Melbourne on 13 Dec 1854 which I think would fit with the family reaching Adelaide eight days later.
A South Australian Register article from 22 Dec 1854 (below) ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible