Cal! I need your help!

[merithyn]

I'm trying to find information on the ship registers that came over from UK to 'murica in 1869 and 1871. Ancestry.com has become a major pain in the ass on this now. (I found it easily last time I was on the site.)

I know you do this stuff. Help me!

[The Brain]

if ancestry.com is a pain in the ass you're doing it wrong.

[Caliga]

I don't follow, Meri.  You're having trouble finding the registers?

Do you have a paid membership on Ancestry?

[derspiess]

I bet she wants your login

[Ed Anger]

USERNAME: I LIKE BIG BOOBS
PASSWORD: MOTORBOAT

[Caliga]

 

[merithyn]

I don't follow, Meri.  You're having trouble finding the registers?

Do you have a paid membership on Ancestry?

Yes. And I know when my great-grandfather came over. But it's not showing up on any of the searches.

[Caliga]

Did you start here?

http://search.ancestry.com/search/category.aspx?cat=40

[merithyn]

I found it last night. I was putting too much information in, and so it was being dropped in the searches.

My great-grandfather was known as Matey, though his given name was Meredith. In my tree, I have him as Meredith E (Matey) Williams, and each time I did the search, Ancestry.com would include the whole thing. Once I dropped the E and the Matey, I found him. City of Brussels in 1871 as an infant.

Interesting thing. They list his "sister" as Mary J Williams, 3, traveling with them. Except that's actually his first cousin, Mary Jane Evans, 3, traveling with them. His sister, Eliza Wm Williams, 3, must have been standing with his aunt and uncle, who also traveled over on the same boat, because she's listed as Eliza W Evans. On top of that, Mary Jane's mother must have been pregnant on the crossing because her brother, also named Matey, was born in October 1871 in the US. It took a lot of digging into census records in both Wales and Iowa to put the pieces together, including trying to remember some of the family lore about all of it.

I really wish the Welsh had been just a *bit* more creative in their naming conventions.... 

[derspiess]

Almost all my ancestors were here in North America by the 1700s.  Really tough to find much good info on their trips across the Atlantic.  My uncle found the ship record for our direct paternal ancestor's voyage, at least.

[merithyn]

I found the ship's register of my great-something or other-grandfather who came over in 1635. He was a 14-year-old orphan, his parents having died the year before.

It helps a great deal that that particular line - my maternal grandfather's line - came over and stayed for the next 380 years in pretty much the same place, New London, Connecticut. It also helps that New London, CT, kept incredible records from the very beginning. I actually have pictures of each of the tombstones for each male in that line, along with information on their spouses and parents. All of it is kept with the grave markers.

[Ed Anger]

My ancestors killed your ancestors.

[Admiral Yi]

My ancestors stole your ancestors' sheep.

[Ed Anger]

My ancestors likely raped the sheep. There is some unsavory characters in my family tree.

[Tonitrus]

My ancestors stole your ancestors' sheep.

And katmai's ancestors stole their sunglasses.