Alerted by the latest Ancestry Weekly Discovery, I clicked over to Ancestry.com and spent a few minutes playing with their new Seattle Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1957.
In searching for the Surname, Meitzler, I found an entry for 63 year old John Meitzler. He arrived in Tacoma, Washington on 31 Aug 1926 on the William A Mckenney, having come from Vancouver, British Columbia. Based on his age, he was born about 1863. This entry is found on Line 17 of a page on Microfilm Roll Number: M1383_119. See the following illustration:
The following is from Ancestry.com:
This database is an index to passenger and crew lists of ships arriving at Seattle, Tacoma, and Port Townsend, Washington between 1882 and 1957, as well as passenger and crew lists of airplanes arriving at Seattle between 1947 and 1954. In addition, the names found in the index are linked to actual images of the passenger and crew lists, copied from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm (see Source Information for specific series and roll information).
Specifically, this database includes:
- Vessel passenger lists, Seattle (1949-1954)
- Vessel passenger and crew lists, Seattle (1890-1957)
- Vessel passenger lists, Seattle from Insular Possessions (1908-1917)
- Vessels passenger lists, Port Townsend and Tacoma (1894-1909)
- Chinese passenger lists, Seattle and Port Townsend (1882-1916)
- Airplane passenger and crew lists, Seattle (Mar. 1947-Nov. 1954)
- Vessel crew lists, Seattle (1903-1917)
- Certificates of head tax paid by aliens arriving at Seattle from foreign contiguous territory (1917-1924)
A variety of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) forms were used to record information about the passengers and crew members. Different forms could be used depending on whether the individual was a passenger on a plane, passenger on a vessel, crew member, citizen, alien, etc. Forms may have simply changed over time as well. Due to the variety of forms, the amount of information available for an individual in this database will vary according to the form used and the questions asked on it. The type of information that is generally contained in this database though, includes:
- Name
- Age
- Birth date
- Birthplace
- Gender
- Ethnicity/nationality
- Last residence
- Vessel or airline name
- Port of departure
- Port of arrival
- Date of arrival
Additional information about an individual may be recorded on the original document and may be obtained by viewing the corresponding image. Many of the bulleted items listed above may be used to search the index in the search template above.
The microcopies of these lists found at NARA are arranged chronologically by arrival date. If you do not wish to search this database using the search template, the images may be browsed following the chronological arrangement.
To learn about researching in passenger records consult John P. Colletta’s book, They Came in Ships: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor’s Arrival Record (3rd Edition)
