– George G. Morgan
There was a time when I thought that undertaking a search for my ancestors on ships' passenger lists would be as perilous as the journey they took to cross the ocean. I'll be the first to admit that I was a coward, intimidated by what I thought was certain to be a hopeless waste of time. Most of my ancestors arrived prior to the American Revolution, you see, and I had been told that passenger lists from that time had been maintained in the port of entry, and that most of them had probably been lost or destroyed. Boy, how is that for discouraging news!
What I have learned over the years, though, is that there really is a huge collection of passenger lists available. Most of the records have not been digitized and placed online on the Internet or in databases, but there certainly are indices that can help you locate where to search for the originals, or for microfilm and scanned images. In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, I want to provide a high level overview to help dispel some myths, and to point you to some excellent resources to begin your own search for those invaluable passenger records.
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