Canada Ships Passenger Lists

LegacyUser

WEMK said: Please consider indexing Canada Ships Passenger Lists, from Library and Archives. An enormous number of Europeans transited through Canada on their way to the USA. These records exist for 1865 - 1922 and would be a significant aid to many researchers trying to trace the movement of their ancestors. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discove...
Thanks for listening.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: For records to be indexed, FS would need to start a new Indexing Project. They have limited resources and will have a long list of records awaiting indexing. The rate of indexing obviously depends on how fast their volunteers around the world index and I have heard there has been a decline in indexing over the last year or so due to the new online indexing program. There is also a possibility that FS would need to ask the record owners for permission to index the records.

Posting a message here and writing to customer support are probably the best ways of communicating to FS that there is interest amongst their customers for these records to be indexed. You could also ask customer support specifically if they plan to index those records, and if so, when the indexing is planned to start.

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: Would love to see this passenger lists indexed too. Agree with you that this would be of significant assistance to many trying to trace ancestors who came to USA via Canada. I have done a lot of indexing/arbitrating on the old system and now doing web indexing.

Prefer the old system of indexing but know that is gone and willing to do my best with the new system. However, the review process takes longer since we can only do one at a time whereas under arbitration, we could complete 2 at a time. The powers that be failed to take this into consideration when they changed systems and now we can't keep up.

There are a lot of other factors involved as well but we all know the story behind it so no need to belabor that now. Familysearch thought indexing would speed things up but it ended up doing the opposite because they didn't think things through.

LegacyUser

Paul said: I have always believed priority in indexing projects should be given to records that do not exist in indexed form elsewhere. Many records available through the FamilySearch website can quite easily be found on other sites - very often free-to-view ones - and some records have even been indexed on multiple occasions by FS volunteers,

However, the link provided by WEMK shows searches cannot be made by name of person for the 1865-1922 period. WEMK, or anybody else with a particular interest in these records, might wish to contact Library and Archives Canada to see if they would be willing to make copies of these microfilms available to FamilySearch, with a view to their being indexed for the benefit of the general public.

It is not as if the organisation wants to have sole rights so it can make money from providing copies because, unless the name of ship. port of departure, etc. is already known, it appears one is at a dead end in even beginning a search on their website.

LegacyUser

RealMac said: Somebody has already indexed those records (at least the passenger lists for Quebec), because I found my ancestor's family in them several years ago, unexpectedly!

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: Great, now do you remember where you found them?

LegacyUser

Glenn P said: The passenger lists for ships immigrant entry to Canada is available at Ancestry.com The ancestry site was used to identify grandparents arrival from Sweden, 1920s. The title for the search page in Ancestry is: "Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935". Hope this is helpful. Access to ancestry may also be available at FHC.

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: Thank you, Glenn. That's my problem. I don't belong to ancestry.com and don't live near a FHC. I'll have to save up and join ancestry.com. Do you know if they charge extra for Canadian records? Someone told me if you need records outside the USA there is an additional charge but I don't know if that is true or not, do you?

I tried to access ancestry.com at our local library, but it is near the community college and they only have 2 computers and are nearly always tied up with students trying to use them for college work. So it would be easier for me to join ancestry.com for a time to get the information than to try to access it at the library.

LegacyUser

WEMK said: Thanks all for discussion on this topic. Glad to hear Ships Passenger lists are available on Ancestry. Sometimes Ancestry allows access on a trial basis for 2 weeks.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: You can get a 2 week trial for free, but you can only do this once per email address.
Ancestry offers different subscription levels. Cheaper options include US records only or UK records only. To view Canadian records you would probably need a "World" subscription- the most expensive.

DanielleDilks

Ive belonged to ancestry for 15 years. i went with a monthly fee. It's a little more costly overall, but on a limited income, it's easier to budget. You can start with just a basic subscription and add additional things like newspapers.com or fold3 as you go along. I've had a lot of luck with FHC though. If you can get to one and spend a whole day, or even an overnight weekend, it's well worth it.