Probably the most commonly used records at the National Archives and Records Administration office in Pittsfield for researching Irish ancestors are the census, passenger arrival lists, and our index to New England naturalizations. World War I draft cards and other military indexes can be useful in finding information as well.

As we all learned in the last issue, the census can be filled with information. Beginning with the 1900 census, researchers seeking a year of arrival or naturalization information may get help from the census. It can, at least, provide a year in which to start looking. In many cases, however, year of arrival varies depending on the census year! Once, a frustrated researcher showed us the 1900 census which stated the person arrived in 1884, the 1910 census showed an arrival year of 1886 for that person, and again, the 1920 census gave the year as 1892. Since the 1900 schedule was the closest to the event, do we take that to be the most accurate? These discrepancies arise because we don’t know, sitting here looking at something done 80 to 100 years ago, who answered the questions and what their level of knowledge was, to provide the information. This is particularly exasperating because of the work needed to find a manifest with such a variety of years of arrival.

Knowing the port of arrival is especially useful in finding the manifest. If the port isn’t known, knowing where ancestors ended up living can sometimes be helpful. For example, if they lived in Boston, check the Boston arrivals first. Knowing immigration patterns can also be useful; for example, many immigrants from Northern Ireland came through the port of Philadelphia. One of our volunteers found her ancestor coming into Philadelphia even though he ended up living in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. And anytime the date of arrival falls before 1897, read the index for Boston, and perhaps even Philadelphia and the miscellaneous Atlantic ports, before beginning to read the manifests for New York. Rule out the indexed ports before you spend days and weeks scanning the unindexed manifests for New York. And, of course, begin by locating the naturalization petition and declaration of intention, to obtain a more exact date of arrival and port information whenever possible.

Sometimes the naturalization papers are helpful but it doesn’t always work that way. Several weeks ago, I received a request from a researcher asking me to check the naturalization index for her grandfather and his brothers. Of course, it couldn’t be an uncommon name; it had to be Sullivan! But there weren’t that many Sullivans who were naturalized in Stamford, Vermont. I located the first brother, Charles, who gave his place of birth as Ireland. The second brother, John, was a little more specific; he was born in County Cork, Ireland. The third brother, Patrick, was a gold mine giving Castlein, County Cork, Ireland, as his place of birth.

Just this morning I worked on an inquiry from a researcher who sent me naturalization petitions giving exact dates of arrival and ports. Michael Hayes stated on his naturalization petition, completed in 1904, that he arrived at the port of Boston on 15 October 1884, and that he was born 22 December 1871. We checked the index to Boston arrivals, 1848-1891, without success. There were no Michael Hayeses arriving in 1884 who were 13 years old; however, there were plenty of Michael Hayeses in the index! Since he gave us an exact date, we pulled that roll of film for Boston and read from 8 October to 25 October without finding him on a passenger manifest. Just to be safe, we did the same for the port of New York without success. The researcher had requested manifests for four naturalization petitions; two of them were correct and two weren’t even close. As a general rule, over the years we’ve found that when the date is wrong, it’s usually off a month either way and/or a month and a year either way.

Last year, a researcher was looking for the arrival of his ancestor, Colin Kennedy. He didn’t know the port of arrival or the year, only that Colin was born in Ireland around 1852, and settled in Pittsfield. He located him on the census in 1900, which gave an arrival year of 1874 and then 1920 when the arrival year was given as 1876. The 1920 census also said Colin was naturalized in 1881. We sent him down to the Berkshire Athenaeum to find Colin’s naturalization petition and declaration of intention. He came back about two hours later. The petition stated that Colin arrived at the port of Boston on or about the 28^th day of April 1875. We checked the Boston index to arrivals, 1848-1891, and found a Colin Kennedy, age 24, arriving on April 5, 1875. The researcher was thrilled!

We sent him to the Massachusetts State Archives for the manifest. The U.S. Customs Office records, which are the manifests held by the National Archives, were destroyed in a fire in 1895 and are missing manifests from April 1873 through December 1882, as well as a few other time periods. Luckily, the City of Boston required that ships’ captains hand in manifests to the City as well as the Customs Office from 1848 to 1891. Our index, M-265, is actually an index to the City of Boston records, created by the Massachusetts State Archives, not an index to M-277, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston (U.S. Customs Office). Occasionally, a researcher will locate someone on M-265 and not find the person in M-277. In these cases, the researcher can write (or visit) the Massachusetts State Archives to find the manifest.

Another volunteer suggests that researchers should always make sure to check variant spellings of the surname. She is researching Pip and has found it listed as Pip, Pipp, Pepp, Mepp, Pit and Pitt. Also, sometimes looking for relatives can help. Often, one family member could immigrate and then send for others. Families often used the same ports, shipping lines and sometimes even the same liner.