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Ancestry Daily News
7/16/2002 - Archive
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Ellis Island Database Tips |
Ellis Island Database Tips
A couple of months ago, I wrote a pair of articles about the online
Ellis Island database (EIDB) (www.ellisisland.org)
and the response was overwhelming. Never before have I received so many e- mails
as a result of an article I've published—or so many requests to write more
on a topic. In case you'd like to refresh your memory, you can find them here:
"How Accurate is the Ellis Island Database Transcription?"
"An Ellis Island Experiment"
The responses essentially fell into two categories: 1) folks writing to share
their own experiences and 2) others asking questions about errors contained in
the database. In this article, I'd like to share some of the wisdom from the first
group, and in another article, I will do my best to address the concerns of the
second cluster.
Morse's Site for Searching the EIDB in One Step In the earlier articles, I briefly
discussed Stephen P. Morse's remarkable website (home.pacbell.net/spmorse/ellis/ellis.html)
which, complements the EIDB and helps in excavating those hard-to- find ancestors.
To my delight, many finally found their elusive kin and wrote to tell of their
success. Typical were comments such as these:
"I finally found my grandfather. His name is August Slenkamp, formerly Schlehenkamp.
I found him by using August S, German, and arrived 1907. He came up as 'August
Schenkemp.' I never would have thought of that spelling. I ordered the manifest
page containing my grandfather's name and the photo of the ship. Both were a big
hit at my mother's 85th birthday."
—Vickie Saimons
"I followed your tip and used Stephen Morse's website. I knew that my great-grandfather,
Julian Burzynski (pronounced Burr-jeen-skee or often Boo-jeen-skee), had left
German Poland in 1892. At the Morse website, I used his first name and then "Bu"
and there was Julian Bugjuski, age 36, wife Katarzyna (listed as "Catha") and
their six small children (with son, Theodore, listed as "Therd"). That was one
mutation of the spelling I had not thought of!"
—Fran Lada
Using Morse's site will greatly increase your odds of success, but our experienced
readers contributed additional tips that may prove useful to you, if you are still
among those of us searching.
Try Likely and Not So Likely Misspellings
This piece of advice may seem fairly obvious, but it extends not only to names,
but also places—and even to relatives of the same name traveling together:
"My grandmother, Gizella Peto, appeared in the database as Yuella Peto . . . They
both came from the same hometown in Hungary. Patroha was transcribed as Pahoha
on his and Padrolia on hers."
—Marion Osborne
"Another common error I have seen is the place name 'Liban' instead of 'Libau.'"
Libau (present day Liepaja in Latvia) was a common departure port."
—Marion
Werle
"My grandmother, Astrid Naemi Englund, immigrated in 1912. She told me pretty
much the entire story of her immigration, so I knew when she arrived, what ship,
etc. I also knew she traveled with her brother, Fritz Englund. When I looked them
up on the Ellis Island site, her name had been changed to 'Astrid Norma Englund'
(an understandable error), but Fritz's last name had been changed to something
un-phonetic, even though it is given in the original manifest as ditto marks under
her surname."
—Larry Roth
Try Others They May Have Traveled With
If you know or suspect that several family members came together, try other names
than your direct ancestor, especially those with simpler first names:
"After several failed attempts, I decided that the spelling of the name must be
the problem. I remembered that one record for my great- grandfather had his named
spelled 'Marton,' so I tried that. Still, no success for my Margaret Martin. Then,
I decided to try using her son, Anton, as the key person. Success! He was listed
as Anton Marton, and all the family members were with him. His mother was recorded
as 'Margarethe.'"
—Joseph F. Martin
Try Maiden Names
Italian women in particular were apt to travel under their maiden names, and as
we see in this example, this habit could even lead to gender confusion:
"I finally found my grandmother, Maria Domenica DeNicco, listed as Domenico DeMicco,
a 27-year-old male. The reason I stayed with this listing is that the passenger
list showed a daughter, Maria, and under Maria was a male with the same last name
as my grandfather. I was overjoyed to find that Domenico was going to her husband,
Vincenzo LaTeana, in the town in PA where they lived."
— Janet Polas
Try Both Farm and Patronymic Names
Those of Scandinavian origin will want to keep this tip in mind, even if all the
other documents pertaining to your ancestor use just one of these names:
"It took me months to track down both of my grandfathers because both changed
their last name, and used that particular name only during emigration. My paternal
grandfather, Nels Elvik, called himself Nels Hanson. His father's given name was
Hans. My maternal grandfather Hans Ona, called himself Hans Lien. The family house
was named Lien which means the hillside. I found this only after discovering that
three of his siblings went by the name, Lien, and still do to this day."
—Neil
Elvick
"He was found to have traveled using his patronymic name instead of the farm name
(Ludvig Rasmussen instead of Ludvig Lie), although he didn't subsequently use
that name, nor did his siblings. He pops right up when doing a search on the patronymic
name."
—Tony Hansen
Try Reversing First and Last Names
As can be seen in these Hungarian and Scandinavian examples, this tactic is worthy
of trying regardless of your ethnic heritage:
"My grandfather, Gabor Nagy, appeared as Nagy Gobor. Hungarians listed their last
name first many times, but not always. The cursive handwriting tricked them with
the a and o. Only by typing in this misspelling of his first name in the last
name search did I find him."
—Marion Obsorne
"He was found to have his name reversed and slightly misspelled. Instead of Halvard
Lie, he was listed as Lie Halward."
—Tony Hansen
Try Using Less Information
Although online tools now give us plenty of options to help narrow searches for
those with common names, sometimes it's helpful to resist the urge to use them
all:
"Remember the old adage about not typing in too much information? I should have
left out the boat name. I discovered that it is case- sensitive. I had been lazily
typing aquitania, as most indices would allow. But when I followed all the steps
diligently, including looking up the spelling of the ship's name, and cutting
and pasting it in, I found him. What was the difference? The capital A!"
—Mary
Jo C. Martin
Many thanks to all those who gifted all of us with their experience and insight.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the suggestions presented here will produce
a fresh crop of success stories!
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak* (*yes, that's her real name) is the author of the
newly released Honoring Our Ancestors: Inspiring Stories of the Quest for
Our Roots and can be reached through her website at www.honoringourancestors.com.
To see when she might be speaking in your area, please check the schedule page
of her website.
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