Book Reviews

Book Reviews Irish Passenger Lists 1847-187 1. Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. and J. Cooke Line and The McCorkell Line. Compiled under the direction of Brian Mitchell. Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., Baltimore, 1988. This volume opens up a new source of information for genealogists trying to link immigrants to ship passenger lists, and areas of origin in northwest Ireland. Brian Mitchell has compiled the prepaid passage records of two shipping companies based in the city of Londonderry, county Londonderry. The records give the name and place of origin of those passengers with passages purchased prior to the voyage. Who purchased the tickets is not known, but. Robert Taylor and Company in Philadelphia was the agent for William McCorkell and Company line. The passage records, like most records genealogists use, suffer from the problem of illegibility. Mitchell warns that town names were transcribed as precisely as possible, yet still may not be accurate. A researcher will discover that many towns do not appear in Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. Some of the passengers have a county listed as well as the town, while others do not. Mitchell says that counties Donegal, Londonderry and Tyrone provided over eighty percent of the Cooke line passengers, but the data in the text generally did not list the name of the county. Although he does not say so, those three counties were also the primary sending-areas for the McCorkell line passengers. As a reader might expect from the compiler of A New Genealogical Atlas of of towns sending more Ireland [Baltimore, 1986], the map [page than ten people on Cooke ships is well done. There is no comparable map for the McCorkell passengers, but the major towns are the same. Mitchell's preface states that in Ireland, "ship's captains were not required to keep passenger lists." American passenger list laws however, were based on British laws requiring the preparation of lists. Custom officials in Irish ports signed departure lists just as American custom officials signed the lists of ships arriving in the United States. Compendia such as The Source: A Guide Book to 232 Book Reviews 233 American Genealogy [Salt Lake City, 1984], provide information on the location of European passenger lists. Discerning researchers may see such lists in the microfilms of American custom or immigration lists. The departure records frequently gave marital status in place of occupation and were signed by a European customs official. The appearance of such a list in American sources is rare, but for example, there are lists #14 and #35 for ships arriving in Philadelphia during 1866, for the Lady Emily Peel, leaving Deny on 4 April 1866. The book is not consistently arranged, perhaps as a result of the data. The Cooke lists were presented in columnar format, by ship name and year, with port of arrival. The destinations were New Orleans, Philadelphia, St. John and Quebec. The McCorkell data was by the month and year the passage was "engaged" by Taylor and Company, with the name of the ship and its anticipated month and year of departure. The destination of the McCorkell line ships was not given; most of them sailed to Philadelphia, while the Minnehaha generally sailed to New York. McCorkell ships also sailed to Baltimore, New Orleans and Quebec, but as the Philadelphia agent's records were used we can assume the primary destination was Philadelphia. Having the name of the ship, the year and port of arrival are enough to locate a particular passenger list, but knowing the month would be helpful. Generally, the ages of passengers were not given; only children under fourteen are so identified. This may have been a function of the policy of charging a reduced rate for children. Mitchell's brief introductions to the two companies do not discuss this. This is not a book to be used alone. The researcher will want to check a name with that on a passenger list. The list will have the names of passengers who purchased their own passages, as well as those in Mitchell's book. The ship list will have ages for all the passengers and may provide insights into family or kin groups; often married women were identified as "wife" on the passenger list. The pre-paid passage records did not note this. Still, Irish Passenger Lists 1847-1871 will be a welcome addition to the library shelf as it provides access to two shipping companies' records and to another way of identifying that elusive area of origin in Ireland. Migration scholars will be interested in the repetition of place names in the Cooke line ships to Canadian ports; here can be seen the emptying of regions during the famine crisis. Stephanie A. Morris 234 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine In Search of Your German Roots by Angus Baxter. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1987. 122 pp. $11.95 + $1.25. Originally an expansion of a chapter in Baxter's earlier book, in Search of Your European Roots, this is an extremely readable book on researching Germanic people. This publication is a good starting place for beginners; however, it is far from a complete guide to tracing your ancestors in the Germanic areas of Europe as advertised. The volume should be used in conjunction with other books on German research. Mr. Baxter has done a short history of the German people and discusses their immigration to the United States and Canada. Sources and archives are mentioned, but not all of the pertinent ones are included in the list. There is no information on gazetteers and other aids to locating the jurisdiction for an ancestor's place of origin. Also lacking is information on research that has been published in this country and Europe on emigrants. No mention is made of the publications of the Pennsylvania German Society. Their publications have located villages where many of the 18th century emigrants lived; reported the findings of German historians in the European archives; and researched the so-called Hessians who remained in America after the Revolution. Also of importance to those whose ancestors came from the Pfalz, is the Institut fuer Pfalzisch Geschichte and Folkskunde [formerly the Heimetstelle Pfalz] an active group who seek and keep records on those who left the Pfalz area. In his listings of German Genealogical Associations in North America, Baxter indicates that "some of the above may not be full societies but do have publications which reach many people of German descent. The names and addresses given cannot be guaranteed as in a number of cases my letters of inquiry went unanswered." Well, it is no wonder! The address for the German Society of Pennsylvania, an organization not interested in genealogical research, is given for the important-for researchers-Pennsylvania German Society. The organization Palatines to America is listed under four different names. Two of the listings are the home addresses of former officers of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Palatines to America. It is hoped that in future editions these errors and omissions will be rectified, thereby making this publication an important asset to the researcher's library. Jane Adams Clarke Book Reviews 235 Queen Victoria's Descendants by Marlene A. Eilers. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, Baltimore, 1987. 230 pp., photographs, index. $39.95 + $1.25. The preface of this book poses the question: "Why another Royal Genealogy?" The author responds with a two-fold answer: ". to provide a completely accurate record of this extraordinary family, and to do it in a manner useful for both the amateur and professional genealogist." She succeeds admirably! Miss Eilers spent more than a decade preparing this account of more than 670 persons who trace their ancestry from the memorable British monarch, including more than twenty Americans and Canadians. Through intermarriage at least 120 persons can trace their relationship in two lines. More than half the book is devoted to Queen Victoria's nine children, with a chapter allotted to each. Frequent photographs augment the narrative, revealing the personal qualities of many members of this great family who by 1914 occupied the thrones of ten European countries as sovereigns or consorts. This was the consequence of the Queen's dominant role in selecting "suitable" mates for her children and grandchildren. The accounts remind the reader that royal blood does not protect a person from ruin, sorrow or tragedy. The rest of the book gives a complete genealogy of each of her children's descendants, including many who are living today. Eilers uses specific lives to illustrate a number of general themes that emerge from this comprehensive record. She shows, for example, the unwelcome effect of morganatic marriages in contrast to the opposite experience of the British monarchy. John A. Baird, jr. In Search of Welsh Ancestry by Gerald Hamilton-Edwards. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1986. 7ipp., appendices, index, cloth $25.00 + $1.25. The author dramatizes the close relationship between the English and the Welsh people by noting that the search for Welsh genealogical information often begins in London. Hamilton-Edwards offers a series of short chapters combining family data sources and special topics, such as Non-Conformists in Wales. The reader discovers greater than expected mobility among early Welsh families, and learns to be alert to old document spelling variations of names. The book is enlivened by the genealogical trails of famous persons, including John Keats and Lord Nelson. The 236 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine author closes the book with encouragement to the reader to record his own family history. it is a worthwhile work. John A. Baird, jr. The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607-1660 by Peter Wilson Coldbarn. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1987. 600 pp., indexed, cloth $29.95 + $2.00. The book's subtitle is A Comprehensive Listing Compiled from English Public Records of Those who Took Ship to the Americas for Political, Religious, and Economic Reasons,. of Those Who Were Deported for Vagrancy, Roguery, or Non-conformity and of Those Who Were Sold to Labour in the New Colonies. This is a very good description of the records published here, but the title is misleading. Where are the records of the Mayflower in 6 20? The Winthrop Fleet brought many ships to Massachusetts in 1630, where are these lists? This is a matter of hair-splitting, since the records used are those of Chancery and Exchequer in London. The reviewer's concern is that the book buyer may expect from the title complete passenger lists for these early ships. The author has made a compilation that goes way beyond Hotten's The Original Lists, etc. of 1874. He has revised those lists and added the records of Bridewell Prison in London; transcriptions of servants sent to "foreign plantations" in the Americas; port books, court records, as well as records from official papers and documents. The yearly entries of passenger lists and entries from records of thirty-five other contemporary sources provide excellent authentic records of emigrants. Each entry is accompanied by a notation of its source. In many cases these records give the researcher far more information than the usual records published to date. Page by page reading of these records presents a very clear picture of the circumstances that brought these early travelers to the New World. One can begin to form a picture of the people who were the early emigrants. Helen Hutchison Woodroofe Thomas Thompson and Ann Finney of Colonial Pennsylvania and North Carolina, by Jane Gray Buchanan. Available from the author, 114 Berwick Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830. cloth, 402 pp., index. $29.95 + $1.50, Tenn. sales tax. An excellent and well organized genealogy. Mrs. Buchanan has accomplished something that all genealogists yearn to do. She has Book Reviews 237 gathered together all those documents, family stories, photographs, maps, charts and local history, and made of them a highly readable book. Even the reader who has no connection to any of the family lines can still find them interesting. Thomas Thompson was born in Philadelphia ca. 1713, by 1734 he had land in the part of Lancaster County that is now Berks County. He married Ann Finney ca. 1738, she was born in Reading. Ann and Thomas Thompson purchased land in Orange County, North Carolina in 1778. Their descendants later moved on to Davidson County, Tennessee. There is extensive coverage of lines related to the Thompsons; Bird; Tinnin; Whitsett; Lawrence; Turrentine; Warren; Jones; Walker and Roundtree families. The English family of Ann Finney Thompson is fully-treated, including their connection to William Penn and their life in Philadelphia and Reading. Their related lines of the Hart and McAllister families in Pennsylvania and North Carolina are well covered. The Scottish family of Buchanan, from Pennsylvania and North Carolina completes this interesting book. Helen Hutchison Woodroofe In Search of Your Roots: A Guide for Canadians. Seeking Their Ancestors by Angus Baxter. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1986. paperback, revised ed., 303 pp. $12.95 + $1.25. This is most certainly the most complete book to date on Canadian genealogy, and fills a much needed void. Mr. Baxter's review of the Public Archives, Canadian church records, civil records and lists of genealogical and historical societies for all of Canada is of tremendous help to the researcher. As has been the case in his previous books, his descriptive style is easy to read and makes his instructive suggestions uncomplicated and useful. Two-thirds of the book describes records in the British Isles and Europe, material that is repetitious of his two earlier books on these subjects. There is an excellent bibliography, especially for Canadian sources. Genealogical Periodical Annual Index: Key to Genealogical Literature compiled by Karen T. Ackermann & Laird C. Towle. Heritage Books, 3602 Maureen Lane, Bowie, Maryland 20715. 286 pp., cloth, $17.50. This is the 25th volume of this surname, locality and subject index to genealogical periodicals. Listings come from about 260 Englishlanguage genealogical periodicals. Pennsylvania is well represented in the listings.