Passengers - Part I

"SS Great Britain by Talbot" by Henry Fox Talbot

I have two great-great-grandfathers who came to Canada with their young families around the same time. I don't know exactly when, just before 1865. Passenger lists are few and far between before 1865, as before that time the master of vessel was not required to keep the manifests. But, even though I do not find my ancestors on a passenger list, there are clues to help me narrow down the time they arrived in Canada.

~ My 2x ggf George King was on the 1851 census for Devonshire, England, working as a miller in Woodleigh.
~ Their marriage banns were read in May 1853 and the wedding took place January 1854 in Woodleigh, Devon.
~ In September of 1856 there was an Auction notice in the Exeter Newspaper for the sale of the property and animals of George King. (There was also a notice in the paper 5 months later for the business of his brother-in-law and sister.) 

~ Their first son was born in nearby Washbourne that December, and baptized January 1857. That was the last I find of them in England.

For some unknown-to-me reason, around the same time 4 of George's siblings went to Australia and George is the only one that came to Canada. Their mother had died 10 years past , but their father was not to die for another 7 years.

My 2x ggf Alexander Mavor came from Ellon, Scotland.

~ He was last on a census in Scotland in 1851, working with his brother Francis as a farm servant 8 miles north of Ellon, in Methlick.
~ His marriage banns were read in Ellon in May of 1853 and he was married in New Deer (home of the bride's family) in August 1853.
~ Their first child is born October 1853. That was the last I find of them in Scotland.
(Alexander's brother followed him to Canada years later, in 1873, with a wife and 10 children in tow.)

Both families had a daughter born in Canada in 1859, one in April and one in October.  So I know My Kings arrived between January 1857 and April 1959, and my Mavors arrived sometime between October 1853 and October 1859. So far that's the best I can do. 

Other places you can look when you don't have a passenger list are immigrant societies and perhaps voyage accounts by passengers.

Some passenger lists have been uploaded to Internet Archive.
*Index to passenger lists to various US ports - some are lists but others are cards with passengers information on them.  Even though they are not in alphabetic order, they are all of one letter in a file (ie opening the file the first name begins with R, they will all be R names).  It may be a chore to go through them, but hey, no one said genealogy was easy!

1 of a batch of cards of passengers arriving at Baltimore 1820-1897.

There are also some websites where volunteers have researched and transcribed passenger lists for us. (Big YAAAY and thank you for the volunteers!!!)

Relevant Links

Olive Tree Genealogy Passengers Lists

The Ship's Lists

Island Register - Ship and Passenger Lists for the Maritimes

A bibliography of ship passengers lists, 1538-1825; being a guide to published lists of early immigrants to North America

Passenger Lists of Vessels arriving at Baltimore - 1820-1897

Passenger Lists of Vessels arriving at Philadelphia

Passenger and crew lists of vessels arriving at New York 1897-1957

More Passenger Lists at Gjenvick-Gjønvik

St John, NB - Daly Telegraph May 14, 1874 - list of passengers on the "Sidonian"

St John, NB - Daily Telegraph May 14 1874 - list of passengers on the "Castalia"

Passengers arriving in the St Albans, Vermont district through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports - 1895-1954

Bristol to Canada: list of first class passengers; CNR Steamship Royal George - 1911

The original lists of persons of quality, emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels, serving men sold for a term of years, apprentices, children stolen, maidens pressed and others, who went from Great Britain to the American plantations; 1600-1700

South Australian Register - Monday 28 August 1865 - The "Cornwallis", ship arrival and full passenger list  27 Aug 1865 

List of emigrants to America from Liverpool, 1697-1707

St Andrew's Society Montreal - Immigrant list 

Links to Harvard Univ - Programs to help Immigrants (bottom of page)

Immigrants to Canada website 

Souvenir of the Anchor Line Agent's Excursion 1872

Ships Sailing from Scotland

List of passengers, R.M.S. Ophir, Orient Line, Australia 1895

SS Labrador passenger list Montreal and Quebec to Liverpool - 1898

"Alsatia" saloon passenger list New York to London 1878

SS Princess Sophia, Vancouver to Skagway and points in between - 1914

Royal Mail Steamer New York to Liverpool May 1880 

Passenger ship "Elizabeth" - Amsterdam to Philadelphia 1819

Society of California Pioneers 24th Anniversary, with list of passengers to San Francisco in the year 1848 (back of book)

CPR Empress of Ireland passenger list - Liverpool to Quebec, October 1911