Hi Dave, Brigitte, As my father was a DP ("stateless") who came over by passenger ship in 1951, and I have the photocopy of his page of the passenger list, I thought I would check what it said next to his name. In the masters/surgeon/US officer column, his name was marked with "US Com" - perhaps the same as USC? Elsewhere on the page, most of the other passengers have a note for "NCWC", one has the note "Am PD," and one person has the note "Sponsor Truppner." Going on the assumption that the information in this column might be sponsor information, I searched around a bit and came up with the following possibilities: NCWC = National Catholic Welfare Conference (see this page: http://archives.cmsny.org/2013/07/22/national-catholic-welfare-conference-department-of-immigration-new-york-office-and-the-catholic-committee-for-refugees-records-1921-1965/) US Com = US Committee for the Care of European Children Am PD = American Committee for the Resettlement of Polish DPs (this note next to two Polish names) So maybe TAS and CWS (CWC?) are additional sponsor organizations, but I couldn't narrow those down. Cheers, Linda On Feb 10, 2014, at 6:00 PM, Dave Dreyer wrote: > Brigitte, > Up until 1952 immigrants to the U. S. were required to pay a head tax. The > tax was 50 cents which doesn't sound like much these days. Normally, for > most immigrants this was included in the price of the ticket. Tourists and > those in transit had to pay the tax but it was refunded when they departed. > Kids under the age of 16 did not have to pay the tax, probably leading many > to understate the age of some of their kids. > The abbreviation USC stands for U. S. Citizen. > I am uncertain of meaning for the remaining abbreviations. In this time > period almost all the immigrates to the U. S. were DPs. As a result most > were stateless----perhaps CWS was Citizens without [a} state and then NCWS a > Noncitizen without [a] state. I do not find this explanation very > compelling. > Obviously, almost all DPs did not have the financial means to pay for > passage to America. After the end of the war many organizations sprang up > to pay for passage. Some of these were church, ethnic and civic > organizations, some were sponsored by relatives already here in the UP S., > some by international organizations(perhaps the Red Cross and the > International Refugee Organization). In the period immediately after the > war it took some time for normal commercial transatlantic passenger ship to > resume. Many DPs were transported in U. S. Army troop transports and as > such could be mixed sometimes with U. S. Army personal returning to the U. > S. > Dave Dreyer > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brigitte Wolf" <[email protected]> > To: "Mailingliste Banat-L" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 9:02 AM > Subject: [BANAT-L] abbreviations in ship lists > > >> Dear friends of this list, >> >> in the ship's list and the flight list of new york in the aftermath of WW2 >> I find shortcuts USC, TAS, NCWS, CWS. Does anyone know the meaning? >> The associated text reads: This column for use of the master, surgeon, and >> U.S. officers. >> The words "Head Tax excempt" and "Head tax collected" I can understand. >> Does anyone know the background of this tax? >> The associated text reads: This column for use of the master, surgeon, and >> U.S. officers. >> Does anyone know the background of this tax? I have found that refugees >> and stateless persons were exempt from this tax. Then who pays for the >> cost of the crossing? >> >> I'm happy about every hint. >> Greetings from Berlin/Germany >> Brigitte Wolf >> >> -- >> [email protected] >> Ortsgeschichte und Familien von Sekitsch / Village history and families >> from Sekitsch: >> http://www.sekitsch.de >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >> in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message