robert mcalear wrote: > > I have been searching the Ellis Island manifests for Lovro Mejaski who settled > at Mt Olive, IL before 1900. > I finally found him listed as Laora Hejaski. Acc to the record, he arrived in > 1906, but had made a previous trip in 1895. His home is listed as Mt Olive. > Incidentally, is ethnicity is listed as "Basalia." Look at the original: it is > clearly "Croatian." > > I am not being critical of the job the transcribers did, but the lesson here > is: become familiar with the handwriting on the old documents and try to > imagine how these letters might look to somebody transcribing the names. Be > creative! Remember, the ones transcribing the records were not familiar with > the languages, names, places, etc. > > Now, to find Lovro's son! > > Bob, in northern Calif. Your comments re transcribers interpretation of handwriting in the ship's manifests are quite valid. Many immigrants had sailed from the 2 German ports of exit, Hamburg and Bremen. German ship's manifests were especially known for their terrible German script writing. Kaiser Wilhelm II was a popular vessel. Letter M could easily be read as a letter H, or 'ao' for actual 'ov'. Or, in a manifest Sosice keeps being listed as Losice because script letters S and L appear similar. One Croatian surname I had looked up in EIR was listed under 13 different place name spellings. All these places listed were actually the same location in Croatia. You may or may not be aware that the Ellis Island Records are actually a specific abbreviated index and are not the actual ship's manifests. Since you have the date of arrival (March 21 , 1906) and ship name you might want to rent your ship manifest microfilm from the LDS-Mormons and review it for your surname's replies the manifest's 30 Questions which can provide more information.