I recently posted a snippet about lack of passenger lists in 1834 (I am reposting it for continuity). This brought the query from Bob Neil of Chatham, Ontario. I don't know details of Lake Erie shipping but I checked the Canadian Emigrant, a newspaper published in Sandwich and found the other two snippets. Montreal Gazette, July 15, 1834 The steamer Adelaide was in on Monday and left a few passengers and pursued her course to Sandwich [Windsor]. The Thames also came in on Monday night with a number of passengers. We regret that we are not furnished with lists of the passengers arriving by the steamers - for as many of the passengers arriving have come from New York via Buffalo, they are not enumerated with others in coming to the Province. >From St. Thomas Journal. ------------------------ I found my ancestors, after 11 years of searching, arriving at New York on June 21, 1834 on the Barque 'Lady of the Lake' from Greenock, Scotland. I 'assume' they would then travel up to Albany then via the newly opened (1833) Erie Canal to Buffalo. Your post now makes me wonder if they could have then gone across Lake Erie on one of the steamers you mentioned. They went to Kent County. The trip from New York City to Buffalo would not have likely taken a month, so did the two steamers make regular trips from Buffalo across the lake and to which ports? I've often wondered now how they would have arrived here having no wagons or such. Bob Neil, Chatham-Kent, ON. Edited. Posted with permission. --------------------------- Most local papers had advertisements for ships but the Canadian Emigrant didn't. I did gather that steamboats ran frequently on Lake Erie. This snippet was extracted from a story praising the opportunities in the Western District (Essex and Kent counties; Chatham is the centre of Kent County). Canadian Emigrant, Sandwich, U.C., August 22, 1835 Emigrants coming from New York to Buffalo, can take the steamboat from thence to Detroit (2d cabin $2 or $3). From that city they can be conveyed in sailboats, which ply weekly to Chatham, on the River Thames. It is expected that a steamboat will ply on that route shortly. Emigrants coming from Montreal will be conveyed by steamers to Queenston; from whence they travel by land to Chippawa (passing the Falls of Niagara) where they will find steamboats plying to Port Stanley, in the London District. But this route is above 100 miles from the settled part of the Co. Kent, and, unless they wish to view the interjacent country, far more expensive than proceeding to Buffalo by the Welland Canal, and then taking the steamboat to Detroit, as before mentioned. [The Welland Canal, joining Lakes Ontario and Erie, opened in 1834] So a reasonable route from Buffalo to Chatham would have been by steamboat to Detroit or Sandwich, and sailboat to Chatham. Although Chatham is only 30 miles from Lake Erie, there was no port and poor roads, so it was easier to sail over 200 miles round. Canadian Emigrant, Sandwich, U.C., August 29, 1835 MARRIED On the 7th instant, at the Mansion Hotel, City of Buffalo, by the Rev, Mr. Tucker, Captain G. R. Williams, of the steamer Thames, to Miss Ann Lewis, both of Port Stanley, Kettle Creek, Upper Canada. -- Harry Dodsworth Ottawa Ontario Canada af877@freenet.carleton.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------