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Index of 1890 NY Immigrants from Austria, Poland, and Galicia
By Howard RellesDescription
This is an index to all of the immigrants who arrived at the
port of New York by ship in the year 1890 for whom the ship’s records indicated
that they were citizens of Austria, Poland, or Galicia. There are a total of
44,052 records. The fields in the index are as follows:
First name of immigrant.
Last name of immigrant (in all capital letters).
Soundex code for last name. This is the coding system
typically used by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Microfilm roll number (from NARA’s microfilm collection).
Ship’s name.
Ship’s number (the number designated on the NARA
microfilm).
Date of arrival into NY, listed in 8-digit format. The
first 4 digits are the year (1890), the next 2 digits indicate the month, and
the last 2 digits indicate the date in that month.
Line number in the actual ship’s record.
An abbreviation meant to convey special information about
the immigrant as follows: w = with relatives, usually grouped together with
others with the same last name; p = citizen of Poland; g = citizen of Galicia;
d = deleted (a line was drawn through the name indicating the person probably
did not sail); m = miscellaneous additional list, other than the main or large
steerage list. Occasionally, for example, there were separate numbered lists
for each class of passenger. (If “p” or “g” is not present in the abbreviation
field, it means that the immigrant was an Austrian citizen.)
Additional information about the immigrant may be available
from the microfilm itself. This may include the immigrant’s age, sex, marital
status, final destination, calling (occupation), assigned living space on the
ship, and number of pieces of luggage. Occasionally, in these 1890 records, a
town of origin may be included. The source for these data is NARA’s microfilmed
copies of the original ships’ records of all passengers prepared at the time of
embarkation from the particular overseas port. The films are available at
several branches of NARA including Washington, DC, New York City, and
Pittsfield, MA. The complete reference is Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving
at New York, 1820-1897. Micropublication M237, rolls 543-560. Washington:
National Archives.
Other Observations
A very small number (perhaps 1%) of the ship’s records do not
have the individual immigrant’s lines numbered. In those cases, for the purpose
of this index, each immigrant’s line was assigned a number by counting from the
beginning of that ship’s record.
This index contains only those 1890 New York immigrants who
responded “Austria”, “Poland”, or “Galicia” to the question: “What is your
country of citizenship?” It is important to note that the first two of these
answers could have more than one meaning each. In the latter part of the 18th
century, Poland was divided up and taken over by the three great surrounding
powers: Austria, Russia, and Prussia (Germany). After the completion of this
division in 1795, there was officially no longer a country named Poland.
However, as can be seen on these 1890 ship’s records, many people still
responded that their country of citizenship was Poland. Interestingly, these
responders were probably 3-4 generations later than their ancestors who had been
alive when Poland’s breakup was completed 95 years earlier. Obviously, a strong
nationalistic message was making its way down through the generations. (Of the
44,052 immigrants that make up this index, 60% said “Austria”, 39% said
“Poland”, and 1% said “Galicia.”) The “Poland” response could imply that they
came from three different regions of the original country: Austrian (southern)
Poland, a region also known as Galicia, Russian (eastern) Poland, or Prussian
(western) Poland. “Austria”, on the other hand, could mean Austria itself or
Austrian Poland. Judging from the first and last names of the small number who
responded “Galicia”, they were most likely from Austrian Poland rather than from
the area of Spain known by the same name.
This index cannot claim to be complete. What are known to be
left out are a small number of records, probably a few hundred, that were
illegible or undecipherable on the microfilms.
The corresponding index for 1891 is currently under
preparation.
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The index was compiled by Howard M. Relles and completed
in April, 2000. It is available in book form (a two volume set of loose-leaf
notebooks at NARA-Pittsfield) and on the Internet at two sites:
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/1890ny.htm
and
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/4844.htm.
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