More Ellis Island database search tips dealing with errors For those searching with www.ellisislandrecords.org I'd like to point out a couple more examples of database transcription errors which will inevitably haunt you all. I uncovered the following examples just today and one of them let to a significant breakthrough for me. Arrival: November 02, 1903 SS Belgravia You will see a BIG boondoggle here: Line 24 has the incorrect passenger name in the "text" list. And age. Looks like the passenger name (from the "image") is FEDOR POLULIK (but you won't find it in the database index ("text") recorded that way; it's listed as MOLNA, JOSEF.) Here is the story: Here are the passenger list lines, page 109, List 21: 0023. Pastornak, Josef M 25y S Austrian, Polish Brody 0024. Molnar, Josef M 26y M Austrian, Polish Smerek 0025. Molnar, Josef M 26y M Hungarian, Magyar Nagy Ecs (navigate to these listings by going to the web site above, searching for any of these names, finding the correct entry by date shown above. Then look at both the "text" and the "image" of the manifest.) I stumbled across this entry. Having exhausted the intuitive, obvious means of searching the database (names that sound and look alike), I began scouring manifests, page-by-page, looking at the "text versions." Instead of looking for Surnames, I was scanning for village names. That's how I found this one. For me, the bigger reward was just a half-hour ago, when I found my Grandmother's first passage to America. I had been looking for 17 months online for it. I had been looking for MARIA DZIUBA (DZUBA), who had originally been from Wetlina, moved south to Nova Sedlica. In the same manifest (as above) I found her name, misspelled as: MARIA SZIUBA, when I noticed entries for "Novaszedlicza". So, the manifest is correct, it's just a great example of how the people who typed the data into the computers at EIDB messed up. They were either not careful enough in their typing or were not adequately trained in the reading of cursive or they were rushed. I still say God Bless them. However, the moral of the story is to never give up and keep thinking of different ways to find them. That's my encouragement for you for today! ______________ Bill Tarkulich