Editor's note: Henry Scannell is a Canadian Maritime province descendent, as well as a professional curator. His talk provides immense amounts of information about available reference materials at the Boston Public Library, in particular, as well as the collections and archiving activities of many other institutions. Henry particularly understands the issues of the Boston States Migrations through the Atlantic Provinces. The following is an outline of the sub-topics covered. The full talk provides so much detail that a listener would find it very helpful to annotate these notes for items of particular interest. Henry Scannell's material is copyright 1999 and may not be redistributed without the express permission of the author.

Genealogy resources at the BPL microtext department are large and varied -

Over 3 million items;

University of Microfilm of Genealogies and Local History is reproducing over 100,000 volumes of genealogies and local history from an on-going project to microfilm such items in conjunction with the Library of Congress; these genealogies are searchable on-line from the University of New Brunswick searchable by name, title, place, author, title or subject;

Town and city directories from the late 1700s to about 1960 are for the largest cities, although more scattered for those in recent years;

More than 3500 Massachusetts newspapers over the centuries plus some coverage for other parts of the country, but with less complete historic coverage;

The Canadian Institute of Microfilm Reproduction (CIHMR) is reproducing pre-1900 Canadian volumes ; these directories and local historic volumes are available on-line at the University of New Brunswick;

Over 300 current newspapers worldwide including the principle papers of the Canadian Maritimes.

Some of Henry's family were Irish who immigrated through St John, New Brunswick (NB) and Halifax, Nova Scotia (NS) - a lot of "two-boat Irish" who stayed In Canada for half a generation;

There were also Scots to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and NS;

Some migrated to Haverhill, Massachusetts (MA), Dexter, New Hampshire (NH) and the Boston/Quincy, MA area with professions in teaching and medicine;

Henry's family highlights the "chain migration" pattern where one family member migrates and others follow.

The 1976 Maritime population was estimated at 900,000 with 250,000 who left during that period alone;

The 1867 Canadian Confederation affected exports from central Canada; the tax laws changed which in turn affected the emphasis of the Maritime Provinces with in Canada - depressing the Maritime economy over time; migrations then revolved around work to Boston, Providence, New York and Bangor ports;

In the 1870s, the railroads grew, but steamships were cheaper; steamships ran from St John NB to Portland, Maine (ME) starting in 1836; fares from St John NB were $1 to Eastport ME, $3 to Portland ME, $5 to Boston MA; St John NB to Boston MA steamship time was 36 hours while today's driving time is closer to 13 hours;

In the 1840s, Samuel Cunard of Nova Scotia contracted to bring the mail between England and America; the Liverpool, England to Boston MA route included a stop in Halifax, NS until World War I;

Railroad access then changed traffic to concentrate on the Yarmouth NS to Boston MA steamship route;

World War II disrupted steamship service between Maritimes and Boston - followed by an abortive attempt to resume services in 1958;

Current services concentrate on Yarmouth NS to Bar HarborME and Portland ME;

1818 legislation added conditions for transoceanic trips where passengers were limited to 2 per .5 registered weight;

These lists, called manifests, were collected by the ship captains and submitted to the customs office, transferred to the Secretary of State and reported in summary to the Congress;

Before 1883, the Boston original documents were lost, but many copies exist and other records have been used to fill in - however, there are some gaps;

1848 introduced legislation for additional lists;

1891 legislation was geared towards unwanted burdens for indigent immigration populations;

1880-1890 original documents exist;

In 1882, the flow of immigrants were regulated through what is now called the Bureau of Naturalization and Immigration;

"St Alban's passenger lists" are titled for the place where the records for land immigrations were collected for both Canadian and Mexican immigrations;

Earlier records have less info - vessel name, port, date of arrival, master/captain, plus - name, age occupation, sex, occupation, country of origin or country to be settled in large terms, and whether the persons are immigrants, embarking tourists or returning tourists, plus deaths and circumstances enroute

With 1882 legislation, info additionally included place of birth, last residence, nationality, whether they had been to the US before ( where/when) and references to relatives they would be visiting - name, address, relation;

1903 added race question;

1906 added personal description and birthplace;

1907 added nearest relative in immigrants home country;

New England has alphabetical - others use soundex;

Supplemental lists exist for 1820-77 in Boston MA, some Philadelphia PA, New Orleans LA, plus scattered small ports and years, e.g. Portland ME and Falmouth ME, Harbor Degrees MD;

During the Depression, the WPA lists were produced to form card indices from ship manifests for MA 1848-91 at the MA state archives - overlapping Federal lists - with name, age, vessel, date of arrival;

NY WPA lists were developed for 1820-47, but because of the increased size stopped at the point of the Irish Famine influx;

There are no indices for 1847-97, but 10-14 reels of microfilm exist for each year - arranged by port arrival, date, ship name;

1902-June 1906, 1906-1906 Boston lists;

1920-1940 has a name index;

1840-1902 book indices to port of Boston MA are in the Secretary of State MA lists; transcriptions are in alphabetical order, which may be as large as 5000 per class section;

Suggestions for name searches - bracket births in one location or another, use city directories;

Naturalization papers also provide when and where born etc.;

NY registry of vessels have most of the 1800s ships plus captains and tonnage statistics;

Martin Allen Directory of European Steamships covers the end of the 1800s into the 1900s with port, steamship lines, ship names, date of arrival for 1890-1930 New York NY and 1904-1926 Boston MA, Philadelphia PA and Baltimore MD;

There are also guides to ethnic immigrations, e.g. the Famine Irish, Germans to America, Dutch to America, Greek to America, Italian to America, Atlantic Canada, French Canada;

Passenger lists for the Holland America line include ships that stopped in Halifax NS and St John NB en-route from European ports to American ports;

Before the US Federal lists there is an alphabetical P William Philby publication "Immigration and Naturalization lists" - from Family Tree Maker on Cd;

Much earlier lists from the Naval Office shipping lists - for military colonies and the West Indies and Halifax NS - port, vessel, cargo, duties, captain, where docked;

"Shipping News", the NF novel by Henry Johnston, is an example of material that illustrates data gathered from newspapers on arrival and departure of ships, as well as disaster and navigation news;

Sometimes local newspapers have passenger lists;

Other publication sources include:

NEHGS recent CD review by George Sanborn

"Ships and Seafarers" - 1787-1936 79,000 ship owners and 265,000 crew member records and master mariner records;

Clues are also available earlier than passenger lists for who was together when and later with more basic data and other references.

The Boston Public Library pamphlet outlines BPL resources.

Fisherman names and vessels? Ships lists are mostly cargo and passengers, but new Ships and Seafarer's Cd will help with crews; also newspapers - eg Boston and New Bedford shipping lists are big commercial general info;

5 principal ports on US eastern coast are Boston MA, New York NY, Philadelphia PA, Baltimore MD, New Orleans LA where there is 1820-1940 comprehensive info - with some gaps;

Canadian ports have less info? - Public Archives Ottawa - No English info as they were citizens of Britain; Major Canadian ports are Halifax NS, St John NB, St Johns NF, Quebec City QC and Montreal ON;

New Bedford MA lists for immigration in the middle 1800s; 1900s reg 1906 - New York to Fall River lines plus north of Boston through Boston MA to Fall River MA;

New Brunswick to Boston MA commuter;

1848-1891 Mass Archives cards - WPA filmed, but manifests have not been filmed and overlap with Federal lists;

Other Boston records are at NARA in Waltham, the BPL; NARA Pittsfield MA has 1897-1940;

State lists include tolls on passengers -designed to prevent indigents;

More than 20 volumes of steamship lines;

BPL also has Social Science references and early genealogies; Pictures of ships in many books, e.g. "Greyhound of Western Seas", Cunard web sites, Maritime Museum in VA;

Name of ship is helpful to narrow arrival eg NY has 3-400 rolls of microfilm plus Morton Allen;

NARA similar - first for Boston haven't been filmed.