How would I go about finding the ship my grandfather Henry Henriksen came over on from Norway? He was born 1879 and died in USA 1914 a young man of 34 years old. He married and had 4 children and came from Stavanger, Ogna, Egersund, Norway. I am assuming he came here around the years 1898 - 1901. I am interested in finding the port he left from and the port he came to. He lived and died in Philadelphia, Pa. Katiejanda - Siswil@aol.com
I assume that he would have traveled from the port of Stavanger as that was near to where he was living. Since the police registers of emigrants from Stvanger was lost in a fire, you will have to try finding him in the other end. A natural place to start would be the Ellis Island American Family Immigration History Center online database of passenger lists was opened. It contains the records of 17 million Ellis Island immigrants who immigrated through the port of New York during the period 1892-1924. the url is http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/default.asp
If you can't find him there, a good place to look would be the passenger lists of ship arriving to Philadelphia. Most likely that would be a ship arriving from a post in England, as many Norwegians traveled via England. You can find more information by reading our article "Hunting Passenger Lists" Many of the passenger lists have survived and are available at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) http://www.nara.gov/publications/microfilm/immigrant/immpass.html
Of course you could narrow you search a lot if you were able to determine the year he arrived. Maybe the death certificate can reveal some information, or other documents connected to his intention of becoming an American citizen.
Emmigrant Ships
Posted - 07/08/2001 : 00:09:35
