IIGS™ Newsletter - November 1998
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IIGS™ Newsletter - November 1998
Researchers whose ancestors were immigrants to other lands often spend hours searching ships' lists. From the lists they hope to gain valuable information which will help further their search. They might, for example, discover from a ship's list the name of the town or village from which their ancestors emigrated. Often, they discover previously unknown family members who traveled with their ancestors or they find that whole groups of people, neighbors and family, emigrated together.
Sometimes, finding out just which ship an ancestor took to arrive in their new home is frustrating. Often, an exact date is not known, making the search difficult. The most a researcher can do is search list after list in hopes of discovering their ancestor's name among the passengers.
Patty MacFarlane Prather is one of those researchers who has spent hours searching the passenger lists of immigrant ships. Patty and a group of volunteers organized the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild to help genealogists search passenger lists on the Internet.
"It all happened very quickly," recalled Patty. "Most of our volunteers were among the thousands of people who are searching for their ancestors, trying to determine which ship they arrived on, which port it came into and then to get a copy of the passenger list for our own personal use.
"About mid-September of this year, someone posted an idea to the Ships List suggesting that we form a group and begin to copy passenger lists and get them on the Internet. Within days a number of people responded saying that they liked the idea and would be willing to help. After reading ten or more such letters, I posted my own which essentially said, 'Let's stop talking about it, let's just do it.'"
The project was up and running almost immediately. According to Patty, sheer enthusiasm propelled the group to tackle what others said was too huge a task. With volunteers lined up, the next step was to find a home for the data the volunteers would transcribe.
"We had several leads regarding a place on the Internet to put all this data we were soon to have," said Patty, "and to our good fortune IIGS™ was thrilled with the project and generously gave us our website."
Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands of passengers lists and some had already been transcribed. The Guild did not want to duplicate the work of others. Patty said she had been looking for her great-great grandfather's 1878 ship and passenger list and had found nothing on the Internet. So it seemed to her that 1878 was a good year to begin. Now, other years are being transcribed after a careful search to assure they are not already on the Internet or that some other organization is not involved in their transcription.
So how was this massive project organized?
"Two or three afternoons a week, I copy the lists at the NARA in Denver and mail them to our volunteers about once a week," explained Patty. "I copy the passenger lists and mail them out, keeping track of all the information about the ship and who is working on it. On the other end, the volunteer receives it, studies it and begins to decipher and type it.
"When it is completed, it is emailed back to me and I send it on to Paula at IIGS™ who adds it to our website. I would have to admit that it sounds easier than it is, as I am now keeping track of well over 150 ships and their passenger lists. We have recently put into place additional steps of several proof-readings, since these are historical documents and we don't want to change them in any way."
A believer in keeping things simple, Patty said there is no pressure on volunteers in terms of time. Everyone, she noted, has families, jobs and other obligations.
"The no-pressure schedule allows for everyone to work at their own speed, to take all time they need to do an accurate job--and we have a 'burnout' protection plan built right in," said Patty.
Over 100 volunteers are participating in the Guild which Patty called a "grass roots effort." So many volunteers came forward that Patty admitted she had a tough time keeping up with offers. Because Patty copies the lists and mails them to transcribers, the project gives even those who don't have access to ships' lists a chance to pitch in. One volunteer is 85 years old. Another lives in Japan. They all are contributing valuable data which isn't always easily accessible to some researchers.
"When you get a letter from a young mother who elects to remain at home with her four children (children are not welcomed at many National Archives branches or at Family History Centers) and another from someone who is house-bound, their only access being the Internet, and yet another from someone who has made the trip to search through the microfilms only to find that they didn't any longer have the physical strength to hand-crank those old machines," said Patty, "you know you are doing something worthwhile."
What had seemed impossible isn't at all, according to Patty.
"When people come together who are like-minded and dedicated," she said, "there isn't much which is truly impossible."
Read more about the Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild.