Tips from the Pros: Traveling Family Members in Passenger Arrivals

When we think about passenger arrival records, too often our focus is on immigrant ancestors. Don’t forget to look for other family members who may have been world travelers or who perhaps had to return to an ancestral home to visit family or settle the estate of a grandparent or some other relative.

And don’t forget that many immigrants went back and forth several times–and did not always pass through the same port. I found my great-grandfather arriving in the U.S. twice in the same year, once in July through Baltimore and again in October through New York.

So don’t stop looking once you find a passenger arrival for your immigrant ancestor. You may be pleasantly surprised at what else you find.

3 thoughts on “Tips from the Pros: Traveling Family Members in Passenger Arrivals

  1. In “discovering” my wife’s grandfather’s passage to this country, (from & to Italy), I’m up to discovering three round trips. Not being able to locate his “likely” date of passage in 1905, I quite by chance entered Luigi Nero’s name for the 1900 census and was blown away by seeing he and his brother listed as living in Hartford, CT, having arrived in 1899. He appears on the 1910 census (having left and returned with his wife ca. 1905). He again requested permission to return to Italy in 1914, stating that he had resided in his current Town since 1905. Bottom line . . . I have discovered Luigi Nero aboard the Spartan Prince, 1900, no record of him leaving and returning in 1905 (as stated on his application for a psassport in 1914), and no record of his departure and return to this couintry. (He is listed on the 1920 census). I’m not planning on giving up any time soon, and will search every port I can, thanks to Ancestery.com

  2. I resent being led in to the Immigration site
    only to be faced with having to buy a membership to see
    government records.

    There is a name for this that I will not use.

    R. Armstrong

  3. I have been tracking a first cousin (once removed)whose death date I cannot find, by her visits to Europe (about 5) and Mexico (same) and back by ship..so I have some clue how far into the last century she lived. I also found passport applications for her whole family including the usual awful photos. It is not exactly what I want but they are the only photos I have seen of that family and I feel like I am getting closer to my goal.

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