Ellis Island .....

[Jean Jeanie]

I have the 1930 census for Donora Borough Pennsylvania, showing 2 of my relatives who emigrated to the States. One in 1924, the other in 1930. Their surname is Corstorphine, which is quite unusual. Their names were James and John(brothers)

I can find no record of them on the Ellis island site. In fact very few Corstorphines appear there altogether.

Does anyone know if everybody who emigrated to the States had to enter via Ellis Island or is there somewhere else I can look.

Jean

[darlenesplace]

Hi Jean,
My grandfather also immigrated from Scotland, his was by way of Ontario Canada. It seems alot of Scots immigrated to the US by way of Ontario and ended up in the Pittsburgh area which is very close to Donora.
Donora Borough is not far from where I live in Pittsburgh if there is anything that I might be able to assist with please don't hesitate to ask, and if I can will be happy to oblige.
Darlene

[BobG]

Jean,
The records currently available on line at the Ellis Island site cover the years 1891 to 1924. Your relative that arrived in 1930 won’t be listed and it’s possible the relative who is listed as arriving in 1924 may have been in error, especially if they were not the person who was being interviewed by the census enumerator. In addition, there are no set rules that people had to enter the US via Ellis Island. Many people emigrating from the UK arrived via such primary ports of entry as Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Many went to Canada first, then came to the US via St. Albans, Vermont. Secondary ports of entry were Portland, Maine, Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. Take hart most came via New York.

Ancestry.com has an immigration database available on a pay per view basis but I don’t know if it covers all the possible ports of entry I mentioned previously. I do know the arrival records have been microfilmed but I don’t think Ancestry has the images on line. I believe it is just a database available for searching. Another TS contributor may have more information about that subject.

Did the 1930 census indicate that your relations had become citizens yet? It will be written as AL for alien, PA for petition applied for, NA for naturalized. If they filed for citizenship the petition will give when and were they arrived and on what ship. The trick is finding out where and when your relatives became a citizen of the US. If they are residing in Pennsylvania then that’s where they most likely naturalized.

There is another way to figure it out but it does take time and can test your determination. All the passenger lists that managed to survive have been indexed by soundex/name and microfilmed. You will have to find the film that lists the names of John and James Corstorphines and rent it from your local LDS Family History Center. The Cortstorphines name soundex code is C623. The film that covers that particular soundex name for Ellis Island arrivals only for the dates between 1 July 1902 to 31 December 1943 is LDS film #1379619.

You’ll have to rent that particular film and search the C623 section of the film. Each film contains hundreds of photocopied index cards that contain the person’s name, age, date of arrival and name of ship. Each card is listed by year then alphabetically by surname then given name. To explain, if Corstorphines, Abigail arrived in New York in 1918 her index card will come up before Corstorphines, Thomas in 1920 who’s index card will come before Corstorphines, James in 1924 who comes before Corstorphines, John who arrived in 1930. Did I make myself understood?

This particular film (#1379619) starts with section C623 (the section you want) given name Henry L., probably 1902. You’ll have to turn the handle for a while. In addition, there are two index cards per image frame so you will have to search up one side of the film first and then down the other. You’ll see what I mean. One more thing to look out for. If your relatives left the US and came back via New York they will be listed again. I had one relative that visited family back in Scotland four times between their initial arrival in 1925 and their final trip in 1938.

Ok, you found your relations. You’re half way there. Make note of the exact date of arrival and the name of the ship. Once you have that you will have to rent the film that contains that particular ships arrival record on that particular date. Told you it will test your determination! Once you have that information make another posting on TS and I’ll come up with the film number for your next rental. I have a listing of all 10,000+ films from the US archives. Once you do one search it becomes very easy but still time consuming. But that’s what genealogy is…the thrill of the hunt! Good hunting Jean.

BobG

[Bob Haining]

Hi Jean,

Have a look at the Canadian Immigration Records site,


http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivi ... 802_e.html

there are 4 Corstorphine's listed as entering Canada between 1925/1935, unfortunately, no James or John (but might be related, as you said, an unusual name).

Also have a look at:

http://411ca.whitepages.com/person

There are 15 listed in Canada with that name, 13 in Ontario and 2 in British Columbia.

Bob Haining

[maggie]

Hello
i apologise for intruding on your subject Jean but if anyone is reading this and has come accross the problem i have found with the ellis island site that being
i can find the record of my ancestor on it but when i go into view the record of this ship a totally different vessel comes up .I have emailed the only address i could find the ellisisland foundation inquiring about this about 3 times over the past 18 months but have never received a reply i also wrote to them .Can anyone suggest another way of contacting the site as i would like to be able to see if his description matches that of his sister ie 5ft6 blue eyes etc. who's record i can access.
regards maggie

[BobG]

Maggie,

Try this site. A little more work at times but the images will match up. It could be a warm day on Mars before you'll get an answer from the Ellis Island site.

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/ellis.html

BobG

[maggie]

Hello Bob
thankyou for your reply I have just tried it no luck unfortunatly i still manage to get the information on the wrong vessel ) i am looking for the Caledonia arriving 31st August 1913 that departed Londonderry Ireland ,which is what is shows for his name but on viewing i get the ss stephen .The passenger i am looking for is Fostin Eid.
thankyou for trying to help me regards maggie

[LesleyB]

Hi Maggie
I was reading your post and it brought back memories of having a similar problem a couple of years ago. As far as I remember (...it is a couple of years ago!) each file contained more than one ship's details and you had to work through quite a few pages to get to the ship that you wanted to see. It took a while, I remember, and was frustrating with a slow connection, but I remember taking notes on the order the ships were mentioned in just incase I got lost as the ship I wanted was quite far in!

Try moving through the pages and if you find another ship is mentioned after a few pages... keep going till you find the one you want. I also seem to remember that the ships in each file weren't necessarily in chronological order so you would think you were past "your" ship date-wise, when in fact you weren't - things may have changed by now though, as I said, it was a while ago.

Best of luck
Lesley

[maggie]

hello Lesley
thankyou for your message i will give it another go and see what happens i have gone both backwards &forwards over the pages but maybe's not for long enough i will try extending it both ways for longer.
I notice you are searching for Mckenzie in dunbartonshire you haven't come accross an Agnes married to Mcnaught/mcnaughton have you Bonhill area.regards maggie

[BobG]

Maggie,

Sorry about that. Evidently the site managers made a search change. Go to the site I recommended and click on the gray bar at the top of the page that reads “Missing Manifests”. You will be taken to a new page. At the bottom of the new page you will see an area where you can enter a date. Enter the date Aug 31 1913. To the right you will see three boxes “Series”, “Roll”, “Frame”. Under “Series” it should read T715. Under “Roll” it should read 2165. Under “Frame” it should read 1. Change the 1 in Frame to 926.Then click on the “Display” button located under the T715 box. Scroll down to line # 19…da, da. Then change the frame number to 925. Go to line 19 for more info about Fostin. 5'6, fair, fair, blue. Good luck.

BobG