segs@mhuxv.UUCP (slusky) (11/14/84)
I'm somewhat confused about this group. The List of Active Newsgroups shows this as being for geneological matters. I'm interested in geneological research, but I never see any postings here. Has this retreated to a private mailing list a la net.women.only? Seems unlikely. Well, if there is anyone out there, I'd like to know if you've had any luck sending to National Archives for ship's passenger lists and having them return anything. Or do you just have to bite the bullet and take a day off and go to Washington to do the search yourself? Has anyone had experience with private services? Susan Slusky mhuxv!segs -- mhuxv!segs
rms@ihu1e.UUCP (Bob Stekl) (11/20/84)
I have not tried to get information from the national archives but I have tried a private firm, from an ad in the Genealogical Helper, with no success. In my first try the date of entry was probably vague enough to be incorrect. On my second try I felt that the date should have been specific enough as I got it from a book written in 1920 about Bohemian immigrants to Chicago but still I had no luck. What I didn't and still don't know was the port of entry which would have helped. The firm even searched the files of the Czechoslovakian embassy. I believe the cost was around $10.00. There are a lot of indexes to immigration that firms like the one I tried will search for you and all the firms seem to use the same set. There appears to be a gap in these indices from about 1860 through 1900 or there abouts when there was a lot of immigration. If you have a Mormon library near by, you can rent most of these lists on microfilm from Salt Lake City for about $3.00 each, and look at them at the library. Good Luck Bob Stekl ihnp4!rms