Been on a 30 year quest to find the ship my great great grandparents were on. Have utilized all online and other sources. Seek suggestions from all. The Surname of the family is LEVY, with variations such as LEVI, LEVEY, LEEVY. Family is from Posen/Prussia. I beleive they came over as a family. They probably arrived New York City as they appear in the NYC 1860 census. The father born about 1819 is LOUIS (LEWIS OR SYLVESTER LOUIS) The mother REBECCA or possibly BERTHA born about 1808. ESTHER born about 1845 JACOB born about 1847 MORRIS born about 1851 Need to be aware of European Jewish variations on the names. As an example Esther in Heista in 1860 census. The last member MAY be MARY who was born Oct 1856. In the 1860 and 1870 census and on her 1876 marriage license it states born in GERMANY. However all censuses starting in 1880 and continuing through 1930 have her born in NYC. She may have been born at sea. Critical variable fact as it would help date the arrival. Have not been able to confirm NYC birth via NY records. Thanks for any help. David Brener, Fargo, ND

On 5 Jun 2006 at 0:59, brenerda@aol.com wrote: > Been on a 30 year quest to find the ship my great great > grandparents were on. Have utilized all online and other > sources. Seek suggestions from all. > > The Surname of the family is LEVY, with variations such as > LEVI, LEVEY, LEEVY. Family is from Posen/Prussia. > > I beleive they came over as a family. They probably arrived > New York City as they appear in the NYC 1860 census. > > The father born about 1819 is LOUIS (LEWIS OR SYLVESTER > LOUIS) The mother REBECCA or possibly BERTHA born about > 1808. ESTHER born about 1845 JACOB born about 1847 MORRIS > born about 1851 > > Need to be aware of European Jewish variations on the names. > As an example Esther in Heista in 1860 census. > > The last member MAY be MARY who was born Oct 1856. In the > 1860 and 1870 census and on her 1876 marriage license it > states born in GERMANY. However all censuses starting in > 1880 and continuing through 1930 have her born in NYC. She > may have been born at sea. Critical variable fact as it > would help date the arrival. Have not been able to confirm > NYC birth via NY records. > Hello David When you say you've utilized "other sources" do you mean you have checked microfilms and indexes on film? Passenger lists *are* available on microfilm so if you know a date of arrival you can order the microfilm or have NARA do a lookup for you. For a complete list of film numbers (NARA or FHC) for ships going to New York after 1820, see http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/filmnos_newyork.shtml Find your date (year, month, day if known) and write down the NARA or Family History Centre film number you need. The staff of the National Archives will undertake a search of the original records for a fee. You can order National Archives (NARA) forms online at http://www.archives.gov/global_pages/inquire_form.html You might also want to check the ongoing project to fill in the 1847-1892 index gap for passenger arrival records in New York. This project consists of 3 sets of records: 1. NY Times extracts for ship arrivals and passenger names 2. Images (and some accompanying transcripts) of actual passenger lists in this time period 3. NY Almshouse records for 1855-1858 The complete index of NY Times years and shipping news extracts is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/nytimes.htm You can also search the NY Times online for a small fee through other sites. There are links at the above URL. Images of ships passenger lists for these Unindexed NY years are online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/ The Almshouse Records start at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/ny_alms1855.htm Also check online ships and links to ships in this time period at http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tousa_ny182549.shtml As well, you may want to try naturalization records. Did the family naturalize? The 1900, 1910 ,1920 and 1930 census identify citizenship status, with notations showing the individual was an Alien, or had started the Naturalization process or had his final papers. The year of immigration is also shown. 1920 also nicely provides a year of naturalization. You can read more about the value of census records in your search for an immigrant ancestor at http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/census.shtml There are great clues in the 1870 census too! If your ancestor has a check mark in the column "Male Citizens of the United States of twenty-one years of age and upwards" you have a clue that naturalization took place before 1870 :-) To find out what questions were asked on various census records see http://allcensusrecords.com/ For a Resource Guide to Naturalization records, what you can expect to find, where to find them, and alternate sources of finding those important years (immigration and naturalization) see http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/ Read the intro then choose your state of interest. There are also many links to searchable online naturalization records at NaturalizationRecords.com website. Next suggestion - try other ports of arrival. Most are indexed, so you could order the indexes for each one and go through them. You may even find they entered via Canada which was a lot cheaper way to go. But that opens a whole new avenue so I won't go into it here. Lorine -- Lorine McGinnis Schulze * Olive Tree Genealogy (Ships Passenger Lists) http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ * Naturalization Records http://naturalizationrecords.com/ * Images of Ships Lists http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/ otg@csolve.net or olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com