I’ve finally found my great-great-grandfather Olof Ekström’s passenger record showing his arrival in the United States in 1869. The trick I used might help you ferret out your own “missing” immigrants.
First, though, a disclaimer and some background: Olof might not really be the father of my great-grandmother, Maria Ekström, despite the fact that she (unusually for this time in Sweden) shares his non-patronymic surname. She’s also identified as his daughter in household examination records. But her mother, Anna Maja Pehrsdotter, was unmarried when Maria was born in 1856. Olof had recently arrived in the neighborhood, true, but he didn’t get around to marrying Anna Maja until a second daughter, Amanda, was born in 1859. In any case, Olof is the best and only candidate for Maria’s paternity I’m ever likely to find. And his story is important to this branch of the family, because he traveled to “Amerika” on his own—presumably to pave the way for the rest to follow—and apparently promptly died there. (My cousin suspects his death was a ruse and he married some other woman after arriving. Another cousin, older than us, says the family lore has it that Olof was murdered in New York City.)
Over the years I’d found a record of Olof’s departure in the household books, where it’s noted he left in 1869 without obtaining parish permission. Anna Maja is listed as a widow and his death date is given as Sept. 14, 1869. (My skeptical cousin is not convinced by this.)
I then found him in the Emibas Emigrantregister on CD-ROM, now also available in slightly different form on Ancestry <www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1189/>. In Ancestry’s Gothenberg, Sweden, Passenger Lists, 1869-1951 <www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1910/>, Olof is listed as emigrating on April 16, 1869. He’s age 43, which aligns with the 1826 birthdate I had for him:
Olof Ekstrand
Departure Date: 16 apr 1869
Departure Place: Göteborg (Gothenburg), Göteborg och Bohus, Sverige
Ship Name: Plato
Birth Date: abt 1826
Birth Place: Örebro Hackwad
Age: 43
Destination: Hull, England
Don’t be thrown by the mis-transcribed last name. That’s all too common, and indeed plays into my challenge finding his later arrival record. The birth place (Hackvad) also matches “my” Olof. It was not unusual for Hull to be an emigrant’s initial destination; a train would then take passengers to Liverpool for the ship to the US.
But when and where did Olof arrive? This was before the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, so I’d searched the records of the earlier Castle Garden port in New York (now folded into the Ellis Island website <www.libertyellisfoundation.org>). Since some of his family later arrived via Philadelphia, I’d checked there, too. (Never assume your ancestors arrived at the most obvious port—they might even have come in through Canada.)
The publication of the Family Tree Scandinavian Genealogy Guide inspired me to try again. (My skeptical cousin speculated about Olof when she received her copy.) This time I tried Ancestry’s New York passenger records database <www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7488/>, and—of course—promptly struck out yet again. So I tried a trick I’d used before to find mis-transcribed ancestors on Ancestry: searching for everything EXCEPT the surname. I filled in Olof’s first name, birth year and place (Sweden), and (guessing here) May 1869 arrival in New York.
The very first result:
Olof Estrom
Arrival date: 7 May 1869
Birth year: abt 1826
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Ethnicity/ Nationality: Swedish
Ship Name: City of Boston
Another click and I was looking at the actual, scribbled passenger record. Right next to Olof “Estrom” was Frederick Larsen, who had been listed next to him on the departing passenger list, where both came from Hackvad. I’m sure this is “my” Olof—even if I can’t be equally sure he’s actually related to me.
So next time you’re completely stumped and have tried all the wild card tricks and spelling variations you can think of, try searching without a surname at all.