Geneaology site adds millions of U.S. arrivals

By BOB MIMS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
In the summer of 1914, the good ship Imperator was doubly honored: sharing first-class passage from Southampton, England, to New York were former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and legendary magician Harry Houdini.

Five years later, a young Walt Disney passed beneath Lady Liberty, returning on the Canada from ambulance-driving duties in World War I France. In 1920, Archibald Leach of Bristol, England, later known as actor Cary Grant, plied the waters of New York Harbor aboard the Olympic. He was followed a year later by physicist Albert Einstein aboard the S.S. Iceland.

Those are just a few of the celebrity sightings in Ancestry.com's 41 million-name addition to its online genealogy archives this week. U.S. passenger lists from 1820 through 1960 cover immigrants from all over the world arriving at more than 100 American ports.

"This is an incredibly relevant collection of core family history records, free to use until the end of this month," said Tim Sullivan, CEO and president of Ancestry.com's parent, MyFamily.com.

Combined with other Ancestry.com shipping lists, the Provo, Utah-based online family history subscription service offers more than 100 million ancestors to explore. An estimated 85 percent of Americans alive today can find at least one predecessor on the passenger list collection.

Sharon Tate Moody, president of the Association of Professional Genealogists, characterized the passenger lists as an important tool for family historians.

"Every searchable database that goes online is an asset to professional and amateur researchers," she said, though she stressed the need for access to original documents to confirm online records content.

Sullivan, who says the company took three years compiling, copying, indexing and safeguarding of shipping records to reach Thursday's launch, agrees.

The passenger lists _ until now available only on microfilm and scattered archives, or in limited form in a few online locales _ have been digitized, with 7 million such images readily viewable by cyber-genealogists.

Having those records available at one central Internet location will go a long way toward alleviating one of genealogists' chief frustrations, Sullivan said.

"That point is reached where people finish what they can do at that last ancestor who immigrated to the U.S.," he said. "Now, they can trace that person back to his or her point of departure, giving them a starting point for research in that (home) country."

(Reach Bob Mims at bmims(at)sltrib.com )