Editor's Note: This article is the second in a three-part series. Read Part 1 and Part 3.

In the first article in this series, I tried to establish the idea that being a serious reader of history has direct genealogical benefits. These benefits can and often do extend beyond the contextual "fleshing out" of our ancestors lives that is typically associated with social history. I believe that studying history leads to asking important genealogical questions, which may help us locate forgotten documents or see known documents in a new light. Facts may be known to historians, but their general lack of interest in genealogy may keep these facts buried for many years, if not forever. In part one of this column, I wrote about a postcard called "Form 51" which is associated with the Ellis Island detention process. I suggested that an index of possibly tens of thousands of detainees existed at one time and may possibly exist today. I came to these conclusions by studying the immigration process to perform what I call a kind of "forensic" genealogical inquiry. While the jury is still out as to whether my theory is right, I will now present you with a similar example of inquiry which has produced more immediate and encourage results.

Searching for the Hoffman-Swinburne Records
Hoffman and Swinburne are the names of two small islands located in lower New York Bay, which are currently part of the Gateway National Park System. During the active period of Ellis Island, both as an immigration station and as a detention center, these islands were used to quarantine passengers. Swinburne Island served mostly as a quarantine hospital for those clearly showing signs of airborne infectious diseases such as typhus, yellow fever, or smallpox. Hoffman Island served mostly as a quarantine station for those exposed to the people put into medical quarantine on Swinburne. Hoffman Island sojourners went through a predetermined observation period based on the assumed incubation period of whatever disease they were suspected of having.

Depending on the year, the administrative procedures varied regarding the final disposition of those "detained in Quarantine." (For some reason, documents discussing those "detained in Quarantine" always show the word "quarantine" with a capital Q.) "Detained in Quarantine" is not to be confused with the regular detention associated with Ellis Island and from 214. The administrative activities of the quarantine station were located in the Rosebank section of Staten Island, near the Hoffman and Swinburne islands.

Naturally, the process of quarantine, recovery, and release back into the general immigration system should all be record-creating events. If the individual health records for those held on Hoffman and/or Swinburne Island can be located, what can they tell us about our ancestors? Could it, for example, be possible to locate information on a relative thought to have gone through Ellis Island, but whose manifest was never located? And what do we know about other hospitals which took in sick and contagious immigrants, regardless of the port of entry?

At this time, we are in the process of working with the U.S. Public Health Service to have some of these questions answered. I have heard of individuals who have, with varying degrees of success, contacted the U.S. Public Health Service for information on a particular relative who spent time in a hospital of the U.S. Public Health Service. Beyond the hit-and-miss formal request process, are there any generally available indexes of individuals who have been through the U.S. Public Health system as immigrants? Is there a list of hospitals which relates directly to specific ports of entry, so that an individual searching for records of a particular relative might be able to better define the parameters of the search?

A few weeks ago, I spoke to Dr. Robert Morris and Mr. John Celardo of the New York branch of the National Archives and Record Administration at 201 Varick Street in Manhattan. I explained my interest in finding genealogically significant records pertaining to Hoffman and Swinburne islands. As they usually do, these two gentlemen encouraged my interest in expanding the availability of genealogically relevant documents and offered their help and support. They introduced me to 88 boxes of administrative records relating to Hoffman and Swinburne islands.

Although these records have not been seriously reviewed and cataloged, it would be hard to blame anyone for seeing them as relatively unimportant, at least to a genealogist or an archivist. They consist mostly of correspondence on administrative matters relating to anything from the procurement of shaving brushes for detainees to detailed recommendations for the carrying out of lice fumigations aboard ships docking at the port of New York.

When I finally prepared to put on my white gloves and start digging, I was fortunate enough to have the help of an esteemed colleague, E. Wade Hone of Heritage Consulting in Salt Lake City, who was visiting the Archive to attend the special New York commemoration of KBYU's Ancestors series. Wade is one of those genealogists who brings a special knowledge and appreciation of history to his genealogical and archival research. He immediately understood what I was looking for, and within thirty minutes located some documents which have enormous potential.

First, some unexpected "gold." The document group contains correspondence which carries the names of individual immigrants and detainees. Consider the letter written in 1922 on behalf of Martha Boyadji, an Armenian Christian about to be deported because of quota restrictions.

The drama of such a letter need not be explained in light of the Armenian massacre, that decimated the Armenian population after World War I. The letter also contains information about the ship and the ancestral town, as well as the law firm which represented Ms. Boyadji. We now have a direction we can take for further research. There appears to be many letters of this type which need proper cataloging.

Back to the question of medical records and those records related to immigrants sequestered for observation. Consider the following letter.

From previously known facts of the administrative process, we know that during some years, those "detained in Quarantine" received their final inspection from the Bureau of Immigration at the Quarantine Hospitals and Stations, and skipped the Ellis Island process entirely. In other periods, those held for observation were sent to Ellis Island at the end of the quarantine process. Sometimes it seemed that both were happening at the same time. This apparently caused confusion, and people were "slipping through the cracks."

Most importantly, consider the form called "Exhibit A" in the letter, "Daily Report of Vessels Arriving at City Island Requiring Health Officers Pass," as well as the additional report which is recommended by S.B. Grubbs, the medical officer in charge of the Rosebank Station of the U.S. Public Health Service. We will call that form "Exhibit B" for identification purposes.

These forms are significant for a number of reasons: Exhibit A is an index of ships detained for inspections related to suspected contagious diseases. As the manifests themselves do not always properly reflect the disposition of immigrants removed for quarantine, finding these forms would allow us to cross-reference individuals removed for this purpose. Consider the fact that most people seeing "In Hospital" on the manifest assume that the immigrant was held on Ellis Island or, in earlier times, sent from Ellis Island to a hospital in Manhattan. Clearly this was not always the case.

Passengers with "In Hospital" next to their names might never have made it to Ellis Island. Our search for medical records related to these individuals would be entirely different if we knew that the ship they came on was held for suspicion of contagious diseases and that the medical records group was likely found with Hoffman-Swinburne records. It appears that Hoffman and Swinburne islands formed the first line of defense against airborne diseases, and if you knew through family stories that an ancestor had yellow fever, typhus, smallpox, etc., the Hoffman-Swinburne records would be the most likely place to look.

So where are the Hoffman-Swinburne records? Our search is taking us to the U.S. Public Health Service and the Staten Island Institute of History and Sciences. Administrative control of Hoffman and Swinburne islands passed from the State of New York to the federal government at the beginning of 1924, so that too must be considered. These changes occurred as part of the sweeping reforms associated with other major changes in the immigration process which took place at that time. This will send us to both state and federal records for additional follow-up. While I hope to have something substantial to report on this in the next article, once again, remember that your chances of finding something are much better if you are actually looking for it.

By the way, our "grab-bag" preliminary inspection of the Hoffman-Swinburne boxes paid off in other ways: Wade came up with this fascinating list of U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospitals which served immigration stations throughout the country. This might help those individuals whose sick ancestors entered through one of the many other ports or immigration stations. Use the list to determine which hospital your ancestor may have been in, based on the hospital's proximity to your relative's known port of entry. Finding records for that particular hospital would certainly be a good place to look first.

The Seaman's Retreat
Last but not least, additional credit goes to John Celardo for introducing us to a document group known to some in the New York area, but which deserves national attention. Our interest in Marine and U.S. Public Health Hospitals led John to tell us about records of the Seaman's Retreat, which eventually became the U.S. Public Health Hospital of Staten Island. These records, containing the names and "stories" of thousands of sailors, exist as original volumes, with the binding being of more recent vintage.

The retreat was started in 1835 for sick and destitute sailors who needed a place to convalesce and get back on their feet. The records contain detailed accounts of thousands of sailors who spent anywhere from a few days to a few years boarding at the home, and include the sailor's country of origin, the ship he arrived on, the nature of his problem, the date of his discharge, and much more.

Records exist for the years 1835 through 1882, and are mostly intact and in excellent condition. This record group would benefit greatly from being the indexing project of a genealogical society or other benevolent group. I believe that once indexed, the Seaman's Retreat records could provide those who have seaman ancestors with an important resource. I hope to have more on the Seaman's Retreat records in the next article.

So, once again, I urge the reader to use creativity and openness to further the genealogical quest. Asking a few simple questions based on a reading of history has led me on an adventure which I hope has only just begun. I look forward to letting you know where it leads me.

Rafael Guber is the founder, president, and art director fo the Sepia Guild, and is one of the featured experts on the Ancestors PBS television series.