Did all Newfoundlanders, who emigrated to the US, pass through Ellis Island?
No. Although quite a few Newfoundlanders came in through the Port of New York (Ellis Island), there were several other eastern seaports where they might have landed. I don't have any statistics, however I suspect, based on information from the US Census records, that substantial numbers of Newfoundlanders entered the US through the Port of Boston. The Port of Philadelphia and the Port of Baltimore were two other eastern ports of entry, but I don't know to what extent they were used by Newfoundland shipping. We can speculate that some Newfoundlanders would also have entered the US, by land, from Canada. Of course, immigrants who came in through other ports will not be listed in the Ellis Island database. I could find no evidence of any of these other ports having any on-line records at this time.
Are all Newfoundlanders, who passed through Ellis Island, listed on this site?
Definitely not. The search form submitted to the Ellis Island web site asks for records based on a specific ethnicity, i.e. "Newfoundlander". The results of the search will depend on a number of factors. One major factor is the thoroughness and accuracy with which the volunteers transcribed certain information. There are many entries where the ethnicity appears to be omitted. I also noticed that the manifests indicate that once an individual was "naturalized" in the US, they were listed on the manifests as US citizens. This means that their ethnicity became "American", regardless of where they were born. The US citizen manifests do not give a country of birth for those born outside the US, but it is likely that a number of these individuals were born in Newfoundland.
Another factor that suggests the lists are incomplete, is the absence of Newfoundland names primarily in the years between 1897 and 1903. I found no entries for 1898 to 1902, at all. This suggests that there are quite a few missing (or missed) manifests, and I have not yet determined the reason for their omission. There appears to be an ongoing project, by the JewishGen group, to try to identify all missing manifests, but it is quite an undertaking.
From analysis of the original manifests, it is evident that some of the people, whose responsibility it was to fill them out, were not quite sure which nationality should be used for citizens of Newfoundland. In fairness to them, they may not have been given clear directives, and therefore were left to use their own understanding and discretion. For example, one individual who was a Newfoundland crew member of a passenger ship, had his nationality listed interchangeably as Newfoundlander, British, or English, in the manifests from 1917 - 1924. This observation leads me to speculate that a number of entries in the "Nationality" column of the manifests, recorded as British or English, may actually be for Newfoundlanders. Of course, there is no easy way to extract these entries, with the correct ethnicity, since the authors of the original manifests failed to make a distinction between them and individuals who were actual citizens of Great Britain.
If I don't find an individual on this site, but still feel there is a strong possibility they entered the US through Ellis Island, what should I do?
I would recommend name searches using the search form "Searching the Ellis Island Database in One Step" on the JewishGen web site. Since my search of this site did not locate the individual, we know it will be of no value to search for him/her again as a Newfoundlander. The JewishGen site is especially flexible in that it allows you to search for a name, with the departure ports as a search parameter. Even though Newfoundland was not part of Canada back then, Newfoundland ports are listed under "Canada" on the search form. You can also access the Ellis Island web site and conduct name searches there, but, personally, I find that this approach is usually more time consuming than using the search form.
This page was last updated: Sunday, September 09, 2018 at 04:25:21 AM, MDT