Recently in Immigrant Ancestors Category
The topic for this particular NEHGS conference was 19th century immigrants. So I gathered up my (or my husband's) 19th c. immigrant ancestors and headed off. I had varying degrees of success. Here is some of the new info, some of the old info, and where I intend to go from here.
My husband's 4th great-grandparents John D. and Elizabeth (Mullen) GIBB immigrated from Northern Ireland in the middle of the 19th century. I'm now happy to report that John D. Gibb, his wife Elizabeth and their children John, Elizabeth, Agnes, Paul and Mary all arrived on the 13th of July 1857 on the ship Ellen Austin.
His 4th great-grandparents John and Elizabeth (Gibb) Stevenson arrived 13 Mar 1871 on the ship Europa.
| Shipping Line: | Anchor |
|---|---|
| Ship Description: | Built by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland. Tonnage: 1,746. Dimensions: 278' x 34'. Single-screw, 10 knots. Inverted engines. Three masts and one funnel. Iron hull. Compound engines in 1874. |
| History: | Maiden voyage:
Glasgow-New York, September 25, 1867.
Lengthened to 338 feet (2,277 tons) in 1874. Sunk in collision, July 17,
1878. |
I'm still looking for the ship's names on the SWANSON and BLOOM lines from Sweden though I'd like to share with anyone reading information about Carl Swanson's trip across the Atlantic as written down by Brian's great-aunt who handed down his actual trunk to his father and it now waits for us.
AMERIKA CHEST
It was pulled from its place in a cobweb-infested corner of the attic, carried down to the kitchen for inspection and dusting. No one knew how old it was. It had passed from Father to Son through many generations.
Under the lid of the CHEST valuable things had been secreted. The lid had been lifted by shaking hands of old women, and by the young, strong maiden fingers. It had been approached by those in need, mostly at life's great happenings: Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals.
It was the strongest packing case they could find. It was tested in its joints, and scrubbed clean inside. After timeless obscurity the heavy, clumsy thing was unexpectedly honored again as Karl Emil Svensson prepared the family's most treasured pieced of furniture for his trip to Amerika. So he called it the AMERIKA CHEST.
In the bottom of the AMERIKA CHEST were placed the heaviest items - iron and steel timberman's and carpenter tools: Adz, Hatchet, Chisel, Drawknife, Plane, Hammer, Horseshoe tongs, Auger, Sticking knife, Skinning knife, Rule, Yardstick and Hunter's gear.
Next he packed warm woolen garments, underwear and outer garments, working clothes, and Sunday best. His mother placed camphor and lavender between the clothes to prevent mildew and bad odors certain to develop during the long boat trip to Amerika. In the top compartments she packed some honey, sugar, dried apples, loaves of rye bread, a wooden tub of strongly salted butter, one cheese loaf, 6 smoked sausages, a piece of salt pork, and 20 salted herrings.
To protect against contagious ship maladies and sea
sickness, he also took a half gallon of wormwood-seed brännvin. A drink of this every morning at sea on
an empty stomach would keep the body working. (See Moberg. The
Immigrants.)
The AMERKIA CHEST traveled safely and intact to Burlington, Iowa, and later became his tool chest for work on the farm and while building the Atcheson Topeka & Santa Fe railroad stockyard and depot in Stronghurst, Illinois, and while building the Svenska Lutheran Church in Stronghurst, Illinois.
And now, 120+ years after leaving Småland (in May of 1887) and crossing the Atlantic, the AMERIKA CHEST passes on to more generations.
Sources:
[1] New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 Microfilm serial: M237; Microfilm roll: M237_176; Line: 49; List number: 830; .
[2]On-line website: http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/html/ellen_austin.html
[3] New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 Microfilm serial: M237; Microfilm roll: M237_307; Line: 34; List number: 255;
[4] Ancestry.com. Passenger Ships and Images [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Carl (later anglicized to Charles) MEISTER was born in Berlin, Prussia (now Germany) on 14 Feb 1784. His wife Elizabeth Hierotte FINCK was born 1 May 1796 in Ansbach, Barureuth, Prussia (now part of Bavaria). They married in Ansbach on 17 June 1812 and then set sail for North America. It's a little unclear what their final destination was supposed to have been. However, they were "shipwrecked in the West Indies" and their two oldest daughters were born in St. Lucia. Sometime between 1815 and 1817 the family of four caught a ship north to Nova Scotia and settled in Sherbrooke, which is now New Ross, Nova Scotia.
My grandmother had some china that had been her g-grandmothers (Elizabeth Finck Meister) that was stamped Prussia on the bottom. After she died, and the family was dividing heirlooms my aunt asked if it came over on the boat with Elizabeth Meister. My reply (as I was the surviving family historian once my grandmother passed away) was "I don't see how, since they were shipwrecked in the West Indies." But my uncle pointed out that if the ship merely ran aground and was not actually sunk they could have carried all of their possessions off the ship easily enough. And the survival of some Prussian china in the family might mean exactly that.
At the NEHGS getaway I was hoping for some confirmation of the shipwreck or ship run aground story. It looks like I will never get it. I was told that if the ship into Nova Scotia really came from the West Indies, then there are no passenger lists. There was no need to keep any record of a sailing vessel going from one British colony to another. Might there be some records of ships that ran aground or sunk off of St. Lucia - maybe. But there would be no passenger lists associated with them. So, I'm left with the story that Clara Belle Benjamin Parsons (grandaughter of Charles and Elizabeth Meister) passed down to us.
While I couldn't find confirmation of the shipwreck story, I did find many deeds involving Carl (Charles) and Elizabeth Meister in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia. I now have copies of those and of maps that show where the original homestead was. They had 14 children total over a 28-year period. Charles died when the youngest was only 7, I expected to find probate records, especially for someone who had quite a lot of land, but I did not. David Lambert the Nova Scotia expert at NEHGS says that they weren't always very good with the probate records.
I was also able to get some Canadian census records that list Elizabeth at age 90 in Nova Scotia, born in Germany (making the birthdate she gave her granddaughter Clara of 1796 suspect; if she was 90 in 1881 she was born in 1791 not 1796. Making her one of MANY women in my family who seem to shave 5 years off their age).
