Anomaly of Ellis Island Ships Passenger Lists

Some time ago on a ships passenger lists mailing list, my friend Sue Swiggum of TheShipsList.com discovered that the total number of passengers on a filmed Ellis Island list matched the number of third class passengers only. All other passengers were missing.

Investigations and consultation with a knowledgeable colleague gave us the answer to the puzzle of the missing passengers. There are always exceptions, but in general from about June 15th 1897 until approx. March or April 1903, the lists for first class and second class passengers were not collected at Ellis Island and do not survive, so therefore will not appear on microfilm, nor in the Ellis Island online database.

So if you are looking for ancestors and you are 100% positive they arrived at Ellis Island between 1897 and 1903, be aware that if they travelled first or second class, you might not find their names.

I Got Wise... GenealogyWise that is....

I got wise. GenealogyWise that is... yesterday I joined GenealogyWise.com. GenealogyWise is a new social network site and when I first heard about it I thought "Oh no, just a Facebook wannabee..." I didn't expect to like it. I decided to give it a try though before giving it the thumbs down.

I am giving it one thumbs up and reserving that second thumb until more time has passed. I want to see if the initial euphoria and excitement of it wears off over time.

It is set up just for genealogists and it is rather nice to be connected to others who are passionate about genealogy too!

Not that I will give up Facebook. I have hundreds of friends, family and colleagues on Facebook and I enjoy everything I do there. But the more time I spent on GenealogyWise yesterday, the more I realized I can use both of them.

And GenealogyWise is the hottest thing in cyberspace right now. It took off like a rocket. When I joined there were about 200 members. 24 hours later there were over 1,000. You can link to me as Friend on My Page if you decide to pop over and give GenealogyWise a try.

Last night there were 332 Genealogy Groups. I've never seen so many genealogist set up so many groups so quickly! It almost became a race to see who could grab a good genealogy group name first. Here are a few of the groups I set up for genealogists to join:

Olive Tree Genealogy

Ships Passenger Lists to Canada

Lost Faces: Ancestor Photographs & Albums

Ontario Canada Genealogy

Ships Passenger Lists to USA

Naturalization Records

I hope you'll consider joining me, and other genealogists, in these groups. And there are hundreds more run by other genealogists!

There's lots you can do on GenealogyWise - Blogs, Forums, Groups, Videos, Photos.. you name it you can look at it or participate in it. It's free and easy to register, being part of the NING social network sites. If you are already registered with NING all you'll need to do is log in with your NING ID. Otherwise all you need do is give an email address, a password and fill out a brief profile page.

Hope to see you there! Be sure to look me up at My Page

Featured Genealogy Resource: Coffin Plates (a Death Record)

Today's featured set of little-known Genealogy resources is Coffin Plates. Yes - coffin plates, also known as Casket plates, coffin plaques and casket plaques.

The history of Coffin Plates or casket plates is a long but not very well documented one. Coffin plates are decorative adornments that contain free genealogical information such as the name and death date of the deceased.

Sometimes the coffin plate was attached to the coffin and removed before burial, then given to the family to take home as a remembrance token. Other times the coffin plate was placed on top of the coffin in a stand, then given to the loved ones after the funeral.

Brian Massey of AncestorsAtRest.com has a very large collection of coffin plates online. There are over 500 individual coffin plates on Brian's website and they are all free for visitors to look for a Coffin Plate of an ancestor.

OGS Quinte Branch Updated Searchable Database

The Quinte Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) covers Hastings, Prince Edward and southeastern Northumberland counties was one of the first areas settled by United Empire Loyalists in 1784.

Their Searchable Names Index has been updated and now has over 1,014,600 Names

More than 514,000 names have been added from cemetery transcriptions, baptism records, newspaper indexes and genealogies

If you are searching for Canadian ancestors in other parts of Ontario see Ontario Genealogy for online databases and links.

Reformed Dutch Church of Woodstock, Ulster Co. NY Baptisms 1805 to 1889

Reformed Dutch Church of Woodstock, Ulster Co. New York Baptisms 1805 to 1889 are online as part of an ongoing project on Olive Tree Genealogy to bring New York Church records online

Looking for other New York Church records? See Church Records of New Netherland (New York) on the Olive Tree Genealogy website

NewspaperArchive offering all July 5th newspapers free today

Do you have ancestors who may have made their mark on July 5th any year? In an interesting concept, for today only NewspaperARCHIVE.com is offering all newspapers in their archive from July 5 FREE!

It's worth looking to see if any July 5th newspapers have mention of your ancestor's name.

Bill of Treason from 1837 Rebellion Found

A historical glimpse of Canadiana – a bill of treason connected to the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 – has been found among the archives at McMaster University.

Written on parchment and dated March 1838, the bill was filed against William Rogers, a yeoman living in or near Albion, York Township, Upper Canada.

Rogers was arrested for treason on December 13, 1837, for plotting an insurrection against the Queen, persuading others to join him, and assembling with about 50 other people.

In the indictment, Rogers is described as "not having the fear of God in his heart but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil."

He was tried April 18, 1838, and ultimately acquitted.

Read more about the Rebellion of 1837 and see a list of names of those Canadians tried and convicted of treason at The Canadian Military Heritage Project

Continue reading this story Bill of Treason from 1837 Rebellion