This article is adapted from a talk given at the Chicago 2008 IAJGS conference—Ed.
Genealogists sometimes tell me that they know what I do, but don’t need it because [they] have found [their] ancestor’s arrival records in the Ellis Island records or on Ancestry. If so, that is good, but they may be missing out on potential additional information. Online search engines now make the process of searching for migrant ancestors considerably easier than it once was. Paradoxically, although this makes life easier for new genealogists, the process also leads researchers to overlook and/or dismiss other sources. This article uses a variety of British migratory records to illustrate how it is possible to add a dimension to individual migrant narratives. It discusses the differing types of records generated by Jewish migration (primarily the Litvak migration) to, through, and from Britain and demonstrates their value to Jewish genealogists. Note, however, that Ancestry.com and the Ellis Island Database already have posted online many of the shipping records that brought ancestors to the United States. These will not be discussed further.
If those who have a record showing ancestors arriving or living anywhere, often there are sister documents that will add another dimension. For those periods in which few passenger records have survived, this discussion also offers an insight into the use of alternative sources, such as the medical records maintained by Port Sanitary Authorities in Britain when investigating immigration to Britain and indirect migration to America, Canada, and South Africa via the British ports of Glasgow, Liverpool, London, and Southampton. Migrant journeys into Britain will be considered first. Then methods for tracing migrants leaving Britain will be examined. The focus will be on the period 1793 (when Britain first began to gather immigration information) to 1960 (when British archives no longer gathered this information).
Who Moved?
Genealogists understandably are likely to be most interested in migrants—and Jewish genealogists will be interested in Jewish migrants. It is important to recognize, however, that others also were on the move and were recorded in these records. Included in records of migrants to and through the United Kingdom are British and Irish individuals as well as foreign migrants. Non-migrating passengers included travelers, clerics, and colonial administrators, merchants, members of the crew—some Royal Navy, others Merchant Marine.
Online passenger lists now include the large Hamburg Emigration Database, but also emigration databases from the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Notably absent from the web, unfortunately, are records from the important emigration ports of Antwerp, Bremen, Le Havre, Libau, and Rotterdam.
British immigration records, logbooks, and Customs Bills of Entry all provide information. In addition, we have Lloyds List and Port Sanitary Records. Other immigration records include newspapers, school admission registers, census returns, and naturalization applications. These all enable the family historian to track temporary movements of ancestors within Britain. Moreover, British emigration records gradually begin to show how foreign migrants had originally entered Britain. Between 1793 and 1914, various forms of shipping manifests, or passenger lists, were introduced by British governments.
Destinations
Where did they go? British emigration records exist for the period 1890 to 1960 in the National Archives in Kew. They change over time and are divided into the periods 1890–1905, 1906–20, and 1921–60. These are available on- line at <www.ancestorsonboard.com>. Also of considerable interest to genealogists are the sites <www. movinghere.com> and <www.findmypast.com>.
Note: Genealogists searching for migrants who left from Hamburg may not find them, because they did not go directly to the United States. Instead they may have stopped first in Britain—and in some cases may have never left Britain. Because the primary audience for Ancestry.com is American, the company has put all Hamburg records under the American immigration collection. To look on Ancestry for ancestors who stopped off, or even settled in Britain, it is necessary to look under American immigration. Other migrants, notably Jews from the Pale of Settlement, sailed from Finland—from the Pale of Settlement, to Saint Petersburg to the Finnish port of Humber—where they could get a kosher meal. Others left from Sweden or Denmark. Some sailed from Scotland. Scottish migrant records are accessible online via the <www.movinghere.org.uk> website, although the British archives, which hosts this site, does not advertise that fact.
1905 Aliens Act
Following the 1905 Aliens Act, enforced through the 1906 Merchant Shipping Act, more details were recorded on the foreign-born, non-transmigrants (foreign-born emigrants who had lived in Britain but who had not become naturalized British citizens) and transmigrants (those who arrived and remigrated from Britain within 14 days of arrival). In particular, they recorded the names of companies that had transported transmigrants to Britain, the passengers’ specific nationalities, and the British port of entry. After 1908, returns for Glasgow were unique in recording race as well as nationality of foreign-born passengers. For example, Russian passengers might be recorded as Russian and Jewish or Russian and Slav.
After April 1912, manifests included more detailed demographic information, including place of intended settlement (18 months or longer), and by 1919, a full previous address was entered. The advent of mass air transportation after World War II led to the introduction of passenger boarding cards. Although shipping manifests continued to record seaborne passengers, additional passenger boarding cards have survived for the months of November and December 1960. They record the details of parents and children on a single card.
Other emigration records include sanitary reports; customs bills of exit; newspapers; school admission registers; census returns; U.S., Canadian, and South African immigration records. If in doubt, use Ancestry.com.
Conclusion
Always use more than one source. This allows one to confirm what is given by one source and often provides additional information. The best resources are <ancestry. com>, <ancestorsonboard.com> and <www.chrysalis.its. uct.ac.za/CGI/cgi-RootsWeb.exe>.
Secondary Sources
Debbie Beavis, “British Passenger Lists,” Shemot, vol. 7, no 2 (1999), 4–7.
———, Who Sailed on the Titanic? (Hersham, 2002).
Henning Bender, AEMI Journal, (AEMI, 2004). <http:// www.utvandrersenteret.no/doc/Henning%20Bender.PDF>.
Ann Bennett, “Early Jewish Immigrants to Hull,” Shemot, vol. 13.
Nicholas J. Evans, “Indirect Passage from Europe: Transmigration via the UK, 1836–1914,” Journal of Maritime Research (Greenwich, June 2001).
———, “Commerce, States and Anti-Semitism: Balancing Britain’s Interests in the Age of Empire.” In Nadia Valman, The Jew in Edwardian Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, in press).
Daphne Gerlis and Leon Gerlis, The Story of the Grimsby Jewish Community (Hull, 1986).
Ira Glazier, Migration from the Russian Empire: Lists of Passengers Arriving at the Port of New York (Baltimore, 1995).
Roger Kershaw, Emigrants and Expats: A Guide to Sources on U.K. Emigration and Residents Overseas (Kew, 2002).
Roger Kershaw and Mark Pearsall, Immigrants and Aliens: A Guide to Sources on UK Immigration and Citizenship (Kew, 2000).
Dawn Littler (ed.), Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, vol. 2 (St. John’s, 1999).
Krista Maglen, “The First Line of Defence: British Quarantine and the Port Sanitary Authorities in the Nineteenth Century,” Social History of Medicine, vol. 15, no. 3
(2002), 413–28.
Merseyside Maritime Museum, The Leaving of Liverpool: The Story of 19th Century Emigration (Liverpool, 1986).
Aubrey Newman, Migration and Settlement (London, 1970).
———, “Using the Records of the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter,” AVOTAYNU Vol. XIV, No. 1 (1998), 37–38.
Aubrey Newman and Stephen Massil (eds.), Patterns of Migration, 1850–1914 (London, 1996).
Aubrey Newman, Nicholas J. Evans, J. Graham Smith, and Saul Issroff, Jewish Migration to South Africa: The Records of the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter, 1885–1914 (Cape Town, 2006).
- Gordon Read, Through Liverpool to North America 1830–1907 (Liverpool, 1998).
- Gordon Read and Michael Stammers, Guide to the Records of the Merseyside Maritime Museum: Volume I (St. John’s, 1995).
Tony Kushner and Katherine Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide: Global, National, and Local Perspectives during the Twentieth Century (London, 1999).
Sallyann Sack and Gary Mokotoff (eds.), Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy (Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2004).
Jürgen Sielemann, Rainer Hering, and Ulf Bollman (eds.), Overseas Emigration and Family Research (Bergenfield, N.J.: Avotaynu, 2003).
Herman Söldner, RMS Titanic: Passenger and Crew List (Ruti, Switzerland, 2000).
Nick Evans is a lecturer in slavery studies at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WUISE) and the History Department. He has previously worked on numerous projects examining migration to, through, and from Britain, 1830–1960, at the universities of Leicester, Hull, Aberdeen, and Cape Town. Evans is currently editing a series of papers that examine Jewish history, heritage, and culture in Scotland, 1879–2004, and writing a monograph on European transmigration via Britain, 1836–1914. His research interests have focused on voluntary and coerced migrations within and from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.
