Errors/Omissions in Glazier&Filby
Subject: Errors/Omissions in Glazier&Filby
The error rate in the first 9 volumes of _Germans to America_,
which covers the years 1850-1855, is at least 20 per cent, that
is, at least one entry out of five in the "original" records is
either incorrectly transcribed or simply omitted. In addition,
8 of the lists are duplicates; at least 12 contain no Germans;
7 lists are given the wrong port of arrival (the National
Archives mis-identified the port of arrival of 2 others); 14
lists are given the wrong port of departure; and in 50 cases
(out of 2800), the date of "arrival" (more properly, the date
the passenger manifest was signed) is incorrect, often by
several months, and in some cases by at least a year. (The
worst case is that of the bark "Fanny", out of Cagliari,
Sardinia, which _Germans to America_ lists as arriving at New
Orleans on 11 May 1855: it arrived on 11 May 185*3*. The
place of origin of its lone passenger, which _Germans to
America_ gives as "Germany" was in fact *Tuscany*.)
What are the original records that these lists were taken from?
The records abstracted in _Germans to America_ are the ship
manifests preserved by the U.S. Customs for the five major
ports of arrival (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and New Orleans). They have been microfilmed by the U.S.
National Archives, and copies of these microfilms are widely
accessible. For a list of microfilm reels, see United States,
National Archives and Records Service, _Immigrant and Passanger
Arrivals; A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm
Publications_ (Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund
Board, 1983). For a detailed discussion of American passenger
arrival lists, see Michael Tepper, _American Passenger Arrival
Records; a guide to the records of immigrants arriving at
American ports by sail and steam (updated and enlarged edition;
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993). (Note, in
particular, the reference on p. 95 to the review of _Germans to
America_ published in 1990 by yours truly 8-. I am preparing
an ASCII version of this review, which will be posted on the
German Genealogy Homepage at www.genealogy.com.)
and would the German emmigration records be more accurate that
the American Immigration records?
This depends upon the what information you are looking for and
the type of emigration record you are checking. For example,
the name and date and place of birth will be more accurate on a
permit to emigrate ("Auswanderungskonsens") than on a Hamburg
ship passenger manifest. On the other hand, while an
Auswanderungskonsens may name the port from which the
emigrant *says* (s)he will depart, there is no guarantee that
the emigrant will in fact depart through that port, nor does
the document give either the date of departure or the name of
the vessel, all of which information does appear on a Hamburg
passenger manifest.
Incidentally, when consulting the Hamburg departure lists
researchers should bear in mind that these are *not* original
lists, but *duplicates* of the original manifests prepared by
the shipping agents and carried on board the vessels. These
lists therefore contain many obvious transcription errors.
Researchers should approach with lists for 1850-1854
with special circumspection, since in these the state (although
not the village) of origin is often given incorrectly. This
results from the fact that if two or more emigrants whose names
follow one another on a manifest are from the same state the
name of the state is written out in full only once, followed by
the appropriate number of ditto marks. However, it was
not unusual for a careless scribe copying the original manifest
to overlook a change of state (particularly if it occurred at
the top of a new page) and to continue using ditto marks, with
such impossible results as "Dresden in Bayern" and "Plauen,
Baden". While these particular examples are easily corrected,
correctly identifying a mislabeled "Neustadt" can be a daunting
experience.
Michael Palmer
Claremont, California
mpalmer@netcom.com
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