August 12, 2018

A young reader of my blog, Jake, recently shared with me a website worthy of your attention.

As you may know, ship passenger lists are among the “holy grails” of genealogy research.  They can be the link to your ancestor’s home country, the prior generation, and the means and method of immigration to America.  Finding those often elusive passenger lists can be quite a challenge.

Jake found a compilation of source links on an unlikely website.  Cruisedirect.com is for most people a place where you find and book cruise ships for your travel pleasure.  Surprisingly, they have a page – Finding Your Family from Passenger Ship Lists that aggregates links to other sources and other directories, such as the Ellis Island database.

Additionally, it has a long list of research tips for genealogists just getting started and other research opportunities when looking for passenger lists.

Thanks for the tip, Jake.

Happy Researching!

May 30, 2014

I was recently interviewed by “A List” Genealogist & Speaker Lisa Louise Cooke for her podcast series.  We met via Skype on a Saturday afternoon, and she interviewed me for about 45 minutes on the subject of indentured servants and transported convicts in the 17th & 18th Centuries.  The podcast interview has been released, and you can listen to it now.

The Really Short Story on Indenture & Convicts

If you’re not acquainted with this chapter in American History, here’s the really short story.  Nearly three-quarters of all American immigrants in the 16th & 17th Centuries were indentured servants.  That is to say, they traded passage to America for years of unpaid service – typically 7 years – for their benefactor.  As for the transported convicts, the King of England had more petty thieves and prostitutes (imagine the times of Charles Dickens’ works) filling his jails than he knew what to do with.  His solution was simply to ship them to America to work in the plantation as their sentence.  Nearly 50-60,000 souls made it to America as a “King’s Passenger.”  (I’m not being euphemistic in the use of that term.  That’s what they were called.)

Have I piqued your interest?

The Podcast

If you’d like to learn more, I would invite you to check out the podcast.  The first half of the 40-ish minute interview is free and open to the public.  You can access it HERE.   If you happen to be a subscriber to Ms. Cooke’s Premium Membership, you can hear the second half of the interview.

Boatloads of Blog Posts

If after you listen to one or both parts of the podcast and you’re eager to dig into your research, come back to this blog and turn to the blog categories on Indenture Servants and Convicts.  There you will find boatloads of posts with resources, tips, websites, and so much more.

Happy Listening!  Happy Researching!