Nanaimo Family History Society Indexes Passenger Records

by
EB Lapointe

The Nanaimo Family History Society <www.members.shaw.ca/nanaimo.fhs> of British Columbia is creating an index of all passengers from 1900 to 1921 who arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia and Quebec (Montreal is included in the Port of Quebec). It is expected to take up to five years to complete.

The index includes the persons name, age, the country of birth, arrival date, the name of the ship, the port of entry, the microfilm number, and the page number.

The first part of the passenger record is available now, and more is being added every day. The records on the web at present are: 02 July, 1908 to 05 June, 1909; 23 July, 1909 to 13 May, 1910; and 17 September, 1910 to 13 October, 1910. They are records of the Port of Quebec.

All the names on the ship's manifest are being indexed. It includes returning Canadians, tourists, passengers destined for the United States, and persons whose name have been crossed out.

Sylvie Tremblay, Project Manager at the Canadian Genealogy Centre, says that "there are not enough resources to do an index. There are over 600 drawers, and each of which contain 1,000 cards, so we have to have societies like Nanaimo Family History Society help us."

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is putting every passenger list online as part of "Moving Here, Staying Here: The Canadian Immigrant Experience". Their website is <http://www.collectionscanada.ca/immigrants/index-e.html>.

27 January, 2007