Nanaimo Family History Society

The Columns

General - If the transcriber couldn't make out a portion of what was written out in a column, those letters (or letter) were replaced by “?”. If the transcriber could see something was written in a column but couldn't make it out, “illegible” was used.  If it was blank, then the column was left blank.

Surname - The list is sorted by surname.  Remember that if a transcriber was not able to make out all of the name, a “?” may replace some letters.  The “?” will sort to before the letters.

Given name - Is written as on the page.  Sometimes a military rank or title is used.

Arrival - The date the ship arrived.

Name of ship - The ships name.  “SS” was dropped if it was included in the ships name.

Age - On the passenger list, there are four columns for age, adult male, adult female, child male and child female (child under 14 years).  If a number was written in then that number is shown.  Frequently only the column was checked, in which case an a for Adult or c for child may be shown.  Be careful in using this distinction as marks made for other purposes may confuse the issue or obscure the original markings.  “inf” or “inft” indicates an infant. Some of earlier transcriptions may show an M or F for male or female in this column.  Later transcriptions show the sex in the notes column.  The sex is indicated only when the transcriber feels it is not apparent from the persons name.

Country of Birth - Shows the birth country as it is written on the list.  If English is shown then that will be written as opposed to England.  Sometimes Returning Canadian will be written or a stamp “RET’D CANADIAN” (indicating a returning Canadian) will obscure the original information, in which case “Retd Canadian” will be shown.  Returning Canadian does not mean the person was born in Canada.  It only means the person has established a residence in Canada and is returning.  Frequently the page will show where and how long the person has been in Canada.  See below for more information on country of birth.

Page number - Is comprised of two parts.  The first part (before the dash) is the number of the page starting with the first page that has passenger names listed.  The second portion shows the page number as shown on that page.

Port - Shows whether the ship arrived at Halifax or Quebec (which included Montreal).

Reel # - Is the number of the of microfilm that has the ship on it.  This is the number that the Library and Archives Canada uses.  If the ship is the first ship on the film you may find the film starting with passenger pages as opposed to the front page showing the details of the ships.  In that case front page for that ship is usually found on the preceding microfilm roll.

Notes - Is the place to show any additional data that the transcriber felt needed to be included.  If a persons name has been crossed out, the name will be included with a notation made here to the effect that it has been crossed out.  (m) or (f) indicates the person indicated had their age checked in the male or female column.  This is included only if the transcriber thought the name didn't indicate the sex.

---

Numbered Notes

01 - indicates the person was on a ship that we had problems with, in the transcribing of the list. See the listing of Problem Ships below.

02 - indicates that the person was only identified by their occupation to the person they were accompanying. In order to indicate who the person was travelling with we have modified the entry by inserting the surname of person they were accompanying. A separate listing of these persons is here.

---

Duplicate Names on the Same Ships Arrival

If someone was sent to Grosse Isle, there was an additional listing made up when they were released from Grosse-Île on the same form as the passenger manifest. As these listing are with rest of the pages from that ship, they have been indexed as well. When you find a name that you are interested in and it is duplicated, it is possible that the person had been admitted to Grosse-Île. You can confirm this by checking the Immigrants at Grosse-Île website at the Canadian Genealogy Centre. If you initially don't find the person when searching by name, try searching by Ship and Year as their spellings may vary from ours.

---

Problem Ships

Canada arriving 4 November 1904 - A number of pages has been mixed up with the Bavarian arriving 29 October 1904. The persons indicated with an "01" will be found on that page number of the Bavarian.

Kastalia arriving  28 August 1906 - On the Library and Archives Canada website this ship is listed as the Nastalia.

Kensington arriving 24 June 1906 - On microfilm the Kensingtons Grosse Isle releases follows the Ionians (23 June 1906) Grosse Isle releases.

Lake Erie arriving 6 Nov 1906 - The cover page of the Sardinian arriving 8 Nov 1906 was inserted between pages 7 & 8 of the Lake Erie. The result of this is that passengers on pages eight through 12 of the Lake Erie are shown on the Library and Archives website as being on the Sardinian. For confirmation of this, image #4 of the Sardinian which is marked as page 10 names the Lake Erie immediately after the words "Second Class Canadian". If the person you are looking for is listed as being on pages 8 through 12 on the Lake Erie, bring up the Sardinian arriving on 8 Nov 1906,deduct six from the first part of the page number and that will be the image number on the Sardinian. The last part of the page number will confirm that you have the right page.

Latona arrivng 7 Sep 1906 - On the Library and Archives Canada website this ship is listed as the Latonia.

Manchester Commerce, arriving 20 June 1906 - On microfilm the list for this ship is found after Lake Champlains list of Grosse-Isle releases. On the Library and Archives Canada website it is the second page of the Manchester Commerce arriving 31 Jul 1906

Montreal arriving 30 Sep 1906 - The corner of a page is turned down and obscures the few rew letters of  8 names. As the list is in alphabectical order the names begin with a P,Q,R or S.

Montreal arriving Quebec, 22 Jul 1910 - This ship has two pages pages that are totally illegible. Up to sixty passenger names may be missing.

Prinz Adalbert arriving 16 May 1909, Konig Adalbert arriving  May 1909, Prinz Adalbert arriving May 1909 - These three ships are listed one after the other on microfilm T-4760. We suspect that these are possibly the same ship, however on a cover page the Konig Adalbert is written very legibly (many ships carrying large amounts of passengers have more than one cover page), so we are listing them as they appear.

Victorian arriving 7 May 1905 - The coverpage for the Victorian is 27 pages into the listing for that ship. While the first page of the Victorian is clearly indicated as the Victorian, Library and Archives Canada has placed the first twenty-six pages of the Victorian listing with with the Ottawa arriving on the same day. If the person you are interested in has a page number where the first three digits are lower than 027 then add 21 to the page number to find the listing on the Ottawa's listing. If the person has a page number greater than twenty seven, subtract 26 from the page number in order to find that person on the Victorian's listing.
 

---

Additional notes on Country of Birth.

        The map of the world has changed considerably since the early 1900's. The following list (found on film T-4759, with the Montreal arriving 28 September, 1908), is included to show what terms were being used in 1908.

List of Nationalities and their Several Races of People

AFRICAN, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AUSTRIA HUNGARY AUSTRIAN, (N.E.S)    BOHEMIAN     BUCKOWINIAN     CROATIAN AND SLOVENIAN     DALMATIAN, BOSNIAN AND HERZAGOVIAN     GALICIAN     HUNGARIAN (N.E.S.)     MAGYAR     RUTHENIAN     SLOVAK     STYRIAN BELGIAN BULGARIAN BRAZILIAN CHINESE DUTCH FRENCH GERMAN EMPIRE     GERMAN (N.E.S.)      ALSACE-LORRAINE      BAVARIAN      PRUSSIAN      SAXON      WURTEMBURG GREAT BRITAIN      ENGLISH      WELSH      SCOTCH      IRISH WEST INDIAN BERMUDIAN JAMAICAN GREEK HEBREW     HEBREW, (N.E.S)           “           RUSSIAN           “           POLISH           “           AUSTRIAN           “           GERMAN

ITALIAN JAPANESE NEWFOUNDLAND NEW ZEALAND PORTUGESE POLISH     POLES,  (N.E.S.)          “         AUSTRIAN          “         GERMAN          “         RUSSIAN PERSIAN ROUMANIAN     ROUMANIAN, (N.E.S.)     MOLDAVIANS     WALLACHIANS RUSSIAN     RUSSIAN (N.E.S)     FINNS     DOUKHOBORS     MENNONITES SPANISH SWISS SERVIAN SCANDINAVIAN     DANISH     ICELANDIC     SWEDISH     NORWEGIAN TURKISH     TURKS     ARMENIAN     ASSYRIAN     EGYPTIAN     SYRIAN     ARABIAN U.S.A. CITIZENS

---

I think I've found who I'm looking for. How can I get copies of the original list?

---