Indexing Passenger Origin and
Destination Information
in the Ellis Island Database
Part 2
Susan Sobel Kishon ([email protected])
Ellen Garshick ([email protected]) Kremenets District Research Group
Digitize all available information on
passengers from Ukraine who entered the
United States through Ellis Island from
1892 to 1924
• Information on these passengers is found in ship
manifests (passenger lists) in the publicly available Ellis Island Database (EIDB).
• The Ellis Island Transcription Team has already
digitized some information from the manifests.
• Extract the following additional information from the
manifests:
– Name and address of each passenger’s nearest
relative in the place of origin
– Name and address of each passenger’s relative or
friend at the U.S. destination
– Each passenger’s place of birth
• Add the information to the JewishGen Ukraine Database and the Ukraine SIG Master Index of Personal Names.
Why Is This Information Important?
It allows researchers to
• Search passenger records by these additional data
points
• Use these data points to match a passenger record with
a particular family
• Identify all passengers naming the same relative in the
country of origin or the United States
• Identify how a family name was anglicized (e.g.,
Gelichen -> Geller, Weisblitt -> Wise)
• Match U.S. destination street addresses to addresses in
U.S. Census records
5 Re-indexing Passenger Manifests, Part 2
We need volunteers to
• Access manifests listing passengers from Ukraine
towns
• Transcribe information from the manifests into an
Excel worksheet You’ll need
• Basic computer and Microsoft Excel skills • Fluency in English
• The ability to read cursive handwriting
• A healthy curiosity about immigration from Ukraine
towns to the United States
General Procedure
• Locate records from the EIDB for passengers from your
assigned town
• View the manifest page for each passenger on the Ellis
Island Web site
• Eliminate records for passengers who obviously were
not Jewish
• Type some of the (mostly handwritten) information
Getting Started: Open the Excel File
Open the Excel file sent to you. Note that
• Each line in the worksheet pertains to one passenger. • As on the ship manifest, family members traveling on
the same ship appear on consecutive lines. Parents’ are followed by children.
(For information on each worksheet column, see the column descriptions at the end of this presentation.)
Excel Worksheet:
Passenger Information
This example shows entries for the Relder family of Wisznewic (Vishnevets):
• Ginesia, the mother, followed by her three sons, • Jossel (age 11)
• Hersch (age 9) • Mottel (age 7)
They arrived August 1, 1912, on the ship “President Grant,” which departed from Hamburg.
Excel Worksheet: EIDB and KDRG
• Some pairs of column headings are the same
except for the label “EIDB” or “KDRG” (Kremenets District Research Group).
• You will enter information into the columns labeled
“EIDB. ” Passenger Surname (KDRG Std) Passenger Surname (EIDB) Passenger Given Name (KDRG Std) Passenger Given Name (EIDB) Last Permanent Residence (KDRG) Last Permanent Residence (EIDB)
• In the “KDRG” columns, either (1) delete the columns,
(2) enter your own set of standardized names, or (3) enter KDRG’s standardized names from the files at
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kremenets/web-pages/images-from-VR.html.
Images for ship manifests are available on the Ellis Island Web site.
• Some manifest pages are stored as one complete
image.
• Most are stored as two images: one for the
left-hand side and one for the right-left-hand side:
• For one of the passengers
listed in your worksheet,
scroll to column AQ, labeled “Link2Manifest.”
• Click on the link. A page like
this will open in your Web browser.
• Press “Click to enlarge
manifest.”
Access the Manifest
(Link to the manifest used as an example here.)
Access the Manifest
Look at the heading on the enlarged manifest.
• If it reads List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the
United …, you are looking at the left-hand side of the page.
• If it reads … States Immigration Officer at Port of
Arrival, you are looking at the right-hand side of the page.
• If both parts of the heading are visible, you are looking
The two images for split manifest pages are ordered inconsistently in the Ellis Island Database:
• If you are looking at the right-hand image, the left-hand
image may be either the previous or the next image.
• To figure out which, first click “Close Window.”
On the reduced-image page,
• Click “Previous.”
• Look for the heading
List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United ….
• If you see it, click
“Click to enlarge manifest.”
Find the
If the image looks like this,
Click “Back to
original page.” You’ll see the image you began with.
Find the
• Click “next.” This
should display the left-hand image.
• When you have
located the left-hand image, click on “Click to
enlarge manifest.”
Find the
Find the
Passenger
• Refer to the “Passenger Name” and “Line Number” in
the top corners.
• Scroll down to the passenger record. (This example
shows the Relder family entries.)
Line 004
Check the Names
• Check the passenger’s surname and given name
against the entries in your worksheet.
• If you believe a name has been transcribed incorrectly,
write your interpretation of the spelling in column T of your worksheet (Notes).
Transcribe Country-of-Origin Data
• Find the column labeled The name and complete
address of nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came.
• Enter the information into columns AJ, AL, AM, and AO
Try to infer
relationships for passengers
traveling with
family members. Here, the inferred relationship is
“grandfather.”
• Enter the complete name of the town.
• Include any other place designations with the town
name (e.g., Wolin, Wholyn, Wohlyn, Wohlinska, Podelia, Pod).
This information (usually the gubernia, or province) shows whether the town is actually Kremenets, Wolin, for example, or another town, such as Kamenets,
Podolia.
Occupation
• Enter the passenger’s occupation into column U
of your worksheet.
• Typical entries are wife, child, joiner, sailor,
Destination Information:
Find the Right-Hand Image
• Click “Close Window” in the top right-hand
corner to return to the reduced-image page.
• Click “Back to original page” to display the
right-hand side of the manifest.
Destination: Contact and Address
• Find the line number for the passenger (in the top
right-hand corner).
• Find this column heading: Whether going to join relative
or friend; and if so, what relative or friend, and his name and complete address.
Line 004
Destination: Contact and Address
Add this information to columns W, Y, Z, AA, AB, and AC in your worksheet.
• Some addresses include a
street address, but some
include only a city and state (e.g., Tama, Iowa [IA]).
• Sometimes the destination
includes an additional c/o (in care of ) name. Record this information in columns AF and AG—even if it consists of only one letter.
Destination: Relationship
Try to infer relationships for passengers traveling with family members. In this example, the inferred relationship is father.Common relationships are father, mother, husband,
brother, brother in law (br.il), acquaintance, friend, son, sister, sister in law, father in law, uncle.
Place of Birth
Locate the passenger’s place of birth, and enter it into column L of your worksheet.
Tips: Names and Addresses
• To help decipher hard-to-read or unfamiliar names,
search for the name in the KDRG’s Indexed
Concordance of Personal Names and Town Names or the Concordance, Sorted by Surname (available from
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kremenets/web-pages/master-surnames.html).
• If you can’t read a destination street address, try
dong an Internet search for part of the street name and the city. This search will often yield the correct street name.
30 Re-indexing Passenger Manifests, Part 2
Tip: Destination City and State
If the address in the Whether going to join . . . column is hard to read, check the Final destination column.
Tip: Family Relationships
To help infer the relationship among passengers
traveling together, see the column labeled By whom was passage paid?
Incorrect Transcription and
Crossed-Out Entries
• If you believe a passenger name has been incorrectly
transcribed, note this in column T of your worksheet (Notes).
• If a passenger record is crossed out on the manifest,
note this in column T, and transcribe all other information as usual.
Excel Column Descriptions: A–J
Column Heading Content
A Sort Number Administrative use
B Set Line Number Administrative use
C Passenger Surname
(KDRG Std) Passenger surname identified as standard name in the KDRG Concordance
D Passenger Surname
(EIDB) Passenger surname as written on manifest
E Passenger Given
Name (KDRG Std) Passenger given name: corrected/standardized version
F Passenger Given
Name (EIDB) Passenger given name as written on manifest
G Last Permanent
Residence (KDRG) Town name: corrected/standardized version
H Last Permanent
Residence (EIDB) Town name as transcribed by Ellis Island Transcription Team
I Source for
Concordance EIDB (year): Indicates that the record is from the EIDB; data source designation for the KDRG
Concordance, the JewishGen Ukraine Database, and the Ukraine SIG Master Name Index
J Passenger ID Unique passenger identification number generated by
Colum
n Heading Content
K Place of Birth
(KDRG Std) Standardized city name only
L Place of Birth
(EIDB) City and country as written on manifest
M Age Age as written on manifest
N Year Born Year inferred by Ellis Island Transcription Team
based on the age and date of arrival; approximate + or – 1 year.
O Gender M = male, F= female
P Marital Status M = married, S =single, W = widow
Q Arrival Date Entered by Ellis Island Transcription Team; recast in “1912-August-01” format for the worksheet
R Ship Ship name as recorded at the top of manifest
S Port of
Departure Port of departure as recorded at the top of manifest
T Notes Your comments or observations of inaccuracies
Column Heading Content
V Contact @ Destination
Surname (KDRG Std) Surname of relative at destination: corrected/ standardized version
W Contact @ Destination
Surname (EIDB) Surname of relative at destination as written on manifest
X Contact @ Destination
Given Name (KDRG Std)
Given name of relative at destination: corrected/ standardized version
Y Contact @ Destination
Given Name (EIDB) Given name of relative at destination as written on manifest.
Z Contact @ Destination
Relationship Most common are brother, brother in law (br.il), acquaintance (acq.), father, mother, husband, friend (fr.), son, sister, sister in law, father in law (fr.i.l), uncle
AA Destination Address
(Street Name) Street name (e.g., 8th Avenue)
AB Destination Address
(Street Number) Street number
AC Destination Address
(City, State) City + 2-digit state abbreviation (e.g., Philadelphia, PA; Newark, NJ; St. Louis, MO)
AD Blank
Colum
n Heading Content
AE Destination
Additional
Surname (KDRG)
Additional (c/o) surname: standardized/corrected version
AF Destination
Additional
Surname (EIDB)
Additional (c/o) surname as written on manifest
AG Destination
Additional Given Name (KDRG)
Additional (c/o given name: standardized/corrected version
AH Blank
AI Contact @ Origin
Surname (KDRG Std)
Surname of relative at origin: corrected/ standardized version
AJ Contact @ Origin
Surname (EIDB) Surname of relative at origin as written on manifest
AK Contact @ Origin
Given Name (KDRG Std)
Given name of relative at origin: corrected/ standardized version
AL Contact @ Origin Given name of relative at origin as written on manifest
Column Heading Content
AM Contact @
Origin
Relationship
Most common are father, mother, husband, brother, brother in law (br.il), acquaintance (acq.), friend (fr.), son, sister, sister in law, father in law (fr.i.l), uncle
AN Origin Town
(KDRG Std) Town of origin: corrected/standardized version
AO Origin Town
(EIDB) Town of origin as written on manifest, including province/gubernia if given
AP Blank
AQ Link2Manifest Link to passenger’s scanned manifest page
