Will the Microfilm Show More Information?

[KSRattazzi]

I have many records that tell me that my ancestors show up in ship passenger lists and the like. Will those microfilms show me more information than what I already can see on like ancestry.com? (it tells me the year they came over, how old they were and where they were from).

[girty]

If your only talking ship manifests, it seems like you have the info you want already.. looking at films may show you who they traveled with or maybe a connection to the people they were going to see. Also keep in mind the info is provided by someone reading the manifest, errors in spelling do occur. I always like to look, you just never know what you may see yourself.

[mfjp]

Not all ship records are online even at a paid subscription site.

Not all Ellis Island ship records are transcribed either...

Ellis Island non-transcribed manifests also exist online... you just have to search page by page... this is time consuming but well worth the effort.

I have ordered FHC film of manifests to look for people. Occasionally, you will see an Ellis Island record that is "inaccessable"... (not to be confused with a mis-link)... but luckily, they can be ordered at a Family History Center.

To many people, that one manifest means the world to them... and I certainly know how exciting it is to actually find that elusive manifest of a family member..

Manifests are usually one or two pages long... if they were detained for whatever reason, then you'll find another sheet... Ordering film isn't going to give you more info than what's already published.

There's all kinds of codes and numbers that show up on ship record... and to understand them better, check out this site here...

A Guide to Interpreting Passenger List Annotations

http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Manifests/

mfjp

[KSRattazzi]

Thank you.