Last week I traveled to the Carlsbad Library, about 30 miles away, to check out their genealogy collection, which I'd been told was quite extensive. Indeed, I did find a large number of books and microfilms, most of which are not relevant to my research. The one collection of books in which I'd hoped to find relevant information bore the promising title: Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving in U.S Ports.
The collection contained two sections. Section I dated from 1850 to 1892 and Section II from 1840 to 1847. There are 73 volumes in the collection, with millions of names. I was only able to search through about 20 of the volumes, and could find no record of any of my German ancestors. First, I looked in the index of each volume to find the name of one or more ancestors. Then I looked up the passenger list to check for the correct ages. There were many names that matched my ancestors' names, but none of the ages matched. Furthermore, I could find no family members on the list, even when I knew some had come with their families. Since I checked all the volumes that matched the time frame in which I knew these ancestors came to America, I'm probably not going to find the information I need in this collection. I've already checked other databases online, the family history center in Utah, census records from 1900 and beyond that list the date of immigration, and any naturalization and death records, which sometimes list immigration dates, with no success.
At this point, I may simply have to accept the fact that I may never find the exact date of immigration of some of my ancestors.
No comments:
Post a Comment