10_PEI_passenger_lists-a_genealogical_p_34-39.pdf
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| title | PEI passenger lists : a genealogical myth struck down | |
| creator | Dale, Janet | |
| subject | Island Magazine | |
| subject | Prince Edward Island Museum | |
| description | There was a certain busyness at the quaysides of 18th and 19th century Prince Edward Island, a frequency of coming and going which speaks to us very directly from the pages of colonial newspapers. The Royal Gazette threw its editorial arms wide to welcome new settlers and commented benevolently upon both large and small infusions. In August 1791, the Gazette reported: On Tuesday morning last arrived here on a shallop from Nova Scotia, several gentlemen, who we are informed, intend to become settlers in this Island in a short time. And a month later, reporting the landing in Charlottetown of some 500 people from Uist, the same newspaper exulted: It is with singular pleasure we announce the arrival of those honest and worthy Caledonian emigrants. This pattern held for a hundred years as ship after ship disgorged its cargo of pioneers — the eager and the disillusioned, the adventurous, and the desperately poor. But it is with singular disappointment that the family historian discovers that the names of neither the gentlemen aboard the 1791 shallop nor of the many families who arrived shortly thereafter have been preserved. Indeed, very much rarer than a day in June is a bona fide ship's passenger list actually providing the names of immigrants to Prince Edward Island. The Heritage Foundation and our own Public Archives know of no such list for the early French settlers and have on file only nine lists for the later British arrivals. Passenger lists were, unfortunately, of two types: the more common aggregate list merely noted the number of people taking passage on the ship, while the more genealogically-valuable nominal list recorded the names of passengers and often other information. Our fruitless attempts to find early nominal lists seems to confirm the Public Archives of Canada's contention that most lists before 1865 gave only the aggregate statistic. | |
| publisher | Prince Edward Island Museum | |
| date | 1976 | |
| type | Document ; Article | |
| format | application/pdf | |
| identifier | vre:islemag-batch2-12 | |
| source | 01 | |
| language | en_US | |
| rights | Please note that this material is being presented for the sole purpose of research and private study. Any other use requires the permission of the copyright holder(s), and questions regarding copyright are the responsibility of the user. | |
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MetaData | ||
|---|---|---|
| title | PEI passenger lists : a genealogical myth struck down | |
| creator | Dale, Janet | |
| subject | Island Magazine | |
| subject | Prince Edward Island Museum | |
| description | There was a certain busyness at the quaysides of 18th and 19th century Prince Edward Island, a frequency of coming and going which speaks to us very directly from the pages of colonial newspapers. The Royal Gazette threw its editorial arms wide to welcome new settlers and commented benevolently upon both large and small infusions. In August 1791, the Gazette reported: On Tuesday morning last arrived here on a shallop from Nova Scotia, several gentlemen, who we are informed, intend to become settlers in this Island in a short time. And a month later, reporting the landing in Charlottetown of some 500 people from Uist, the same newspaper exulted: It is with singular pleasure we announce the arrival of those honest and worthy Caledonian emigrants. This pattern held for a hundred years as ship after ship disgorged its cargo of pioneers — the eager and the disillusioned, the adventurous, and the desperately poor. But it is with singular disappointment that the family historian discovers that the names of neither the gentlemen aboard the 1791 shallop nor of the many families who arrived shortly thereafter have been preserved. Indeed, very much rarer than a day in June is a bona fide ship's passenger list actually providing the names of immigrants to Prince Edward Island. The Heritage Foundation and our own Public Archives know of no such list for the early French settlers and have on file only nine lists for the later British arrivals. Passenger lists were, unfortunately, of two types: the more common aggregate list merely noted the number of people taking passage on the ship, while the more genealogically-valuable nominal list recorded the names of passengers and often other information. Our fruitless attempts to find early nominal lists seems to confirm the Public Archives of Canada's contention that most lists before 1865 gave only the aggregate statistic. | |
| publisher | Prince Edward Island Museum | |
| date | 1976 | |
| type | Document ; Article | |
| format | application/pdf | |
| identifier | vre:islemag-batch2-12 | |
| source | 01 | |
| language | en_US | |
| rights | Please note that this material is being presented for the sole purpose of research and private study. Any other use requires the permission of the copyright holder(s), and questions regarding copyright are the responsibility of the user. | |