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Scrolling through ship manifests using Stevemorse.org (FREE)

  • 27 July 2020 5:19 PM
    Message # 9128928
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Are you guys aware that you can scroll through the manifests, page-by-page, as if you were reading a book?   This can be tremendously helpful for several reasons.   First and foremost, sometimes ellisisland.org goofs up and misses a page.   Ever find a person, then go to look at it and find the wrong page is displayed?   Chances are that  the correct page is in there, but is being called up incorrectly.    Second, nothing beats reading the actual cursive writing done while your immigrant was standing there.  Third, getting a good idea of who else was on that ship. and reading between the notes.   As good as the ellis transcribers were, and they had plenty of training, they made errors.  I've found many misspellings, even on the very first letter.

    How do I do that?

    First, go to ellis island.org , log in and find the record that interests you  Write down The Arrival Date, the Frame Number and the Line Number.

    Now go to Stevemorse.org  

    Select:

    Ellis Island Manifest Viewer (aka Missing Manifests) (1820-1957): Direct Access to Ellis Island Manifests in One Step

    First, read the instructions on this page.

    Go to the bottom of the page and enter the month, day and year, enter Frame number you recorded earlier and press display.   

    The screen is divided into two pieces.  A manifest page that correlates to your passenger should be showing on top.   Below remains the navigational buttons to move around the manifest.   To flip forward to the next page, Find the "Frame" group of buttons and press "+1".   To flip back two pages, press "-2".  you get the idea.

    If you go to the end of the manifest you may find a list of people that were either sent to the hospital or deported.   You might find a relative here.   This page is not indexed by the Ellis Island web site and thus not search-able.

    Right click to save an image presently on your screen to your computer.

    Steve has invented a zillion things you can do when the first and simplest search comes up empty.   I have found  dozens and dozens of surprises this way.

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