Ship passenger lists

I don't see why it should be impractical Don. If you look at what has been achieved with projects like 1820 Settlers, some of the emigration projects and the Titanic projects you will see that it can be done - and that information - or even just a fraction of it - can be exactly what someone is looking for. We still get queries regarding Titanic members. If we can make this sort of information available to more people it is a brilliant thing to do.

Sally needs applause and support!

Absolutely! I agree. My only question is the logistics of listing the names from dozens and dozens of ships on one page... Maybe the names should go into an attached document.?

I think it could follow the way the http://www.geni.com/projects/The-Children-s-Friend-Society/14266 has been organised. See also the kmaster list from that project

Yep, great June.. that is the type of thing I was thinking... Anybody got any idea how many ships arrived between 1820 and 1900?
I'm thinking over a thousand.....

Obviously we are only interested in the ones carrying settlers, but then most did......

From Ancestry24...

Search our passenger lists of over 50 000 people who traveled between Europe and Cape Town up until the late 1900′s.
1688 – 1950 Miscellaneous Passenger Records (1971 records)
1841 – 1905 Natal Witness Passenger Lists (13402 records)
1842 Grahamstown Journal Passenger Lists (52 records)
1847 Shipping and Mercantile Gazette (1243 records)
1849 – 1860 Eastern Province Herald Shipping (10441 records)
1850 – 1853 Government Gazettes Passenger Lists (1138 records)
1850 – 1923 Passenger Lists from the Cape Town Archives (10260 records)
1896 – 1910 South Africa Magazine (6656 records)
1901 – 1923 Passenger Lists From the Cape Times (1446 records)
Shipping Records 1800 + (2879 records)

http://www.eggsa.org/cgi-bin/list-voyages.pl
lists 1671 voyages "so far"

I must say, I do agree with you Donovan. Looking at Ball's book, it is a hugely daunting task. And as you say, there were hundreds of ships coming to the Cape.

I have found that the lists are in alphabetical order, not per ship, which makes it awkward. Also difficult to know whether they are tourists or immigrants really.

Not scared of doing this, but it is a mammoth task. The "Indian Queen" alone constitutes a LARGE chunk of the project, and that is just one ship! So far, also only managed to match 1 family to Geni.

Peter Dennis also expressed concern at the size.

Yep you are right Sally its a mammoth task... Your project title is "British Ships to SA in the 1800's" so maybe start by listing the ships leaving from British ports... many of these ships did multiple trips, so we could then start a project per ship, listing its voyages, its history, and the passenger lists for the various journeys. That way we could get buy in from users who have an interest in a particular ship (because their ancestors may have travelled in her)

Sally,

Just to start you on your way, here is a snippet for my Grandparents who immigrated to the Cape on different dates, to start the Sparkman line ( a very thin line consisting of only sons for 3 subsequent generations)

Percy Hubert SPARKMAN
Percy Hubert Sparkman

On 8th February 1902 he sailed from Southampton in the Royal Mail Ship “KILDONAN CASTLE". This ship, built by Fairchilds in 1899, was 515 feet long overall with a beam of 59 feet. She had a tonnage of 9692, two funnels, three masts and quadruple expansion engines, giving a speed of 16 knots. He subsequently returned to England to marry my Grandmother who did not immediately return to South Africa with him after the wedding due to her mother being in bad health and she needed to nurse her.

Maud Amelia Sparkman (Young)
Maud Amelia Sparkman

However before her mother's death on the 6th November 1909, my grandmother apparently decided to join my grandfather in South Africa and on either the 8th May 1909 or the 10th July 1909 she sailed from Southampton in the Royal Mail Ship "KILDONAN CASTLE", arriving at East London, South Africa, roadstead on the 29th May 1909 or 3lst July 1909 and proceed inland to King William's Town, to which my grandfather had been transferred upon his return to South Africa after marrying my grandmother in Portsmouth on 3 September 1907..

Great John, Can you confirm whether the "KILDONAN CASTLE" having been built in 1899, made a voyage to SA in the 1800's.. maybe its maiden voyage?

I like the idea of individual projects for ships with history etc. - that way any GENi profiles known to be connected can be linked and anecdotes added such as John's. Where there are passenger lists available they can be added to the project in the form of documents, links etc. Brilliant!!

Hi Donovan,
The Kildonan Castle was the last ship built for the Castle Line in 1899 before the merger with the Union Line in 1900 to form the Union Castle Line. I know that on it's maiden voyage in 1900 it served as a troopship ferrying troops and equipment to South Africa for the British War effort during to Anglo Boer War.

The ship apparently served in this capacity for 2 years, and was also moored in Simonstown for a while serving as a prisoner-of-war ship until released to it's owners to serve it's intended role, until being again pressed into service in July 1916 as an armed merchant cruiser in WW I and was sent to Murmansk on 20 January 1917 with the Allied Mission to Russia to prevent a separate peace with Germany. She resumed her Union Castle mail duties after WW I until 1930 when she was broken up in Norway.

This is all anecdotal as it forms part of my late Father's documented research which after his death in Nov 2009 prompted me to start capturing his 40 years work in researching the family.

My comments originally to Sally were a little "tongue-in-cheek", prompted by the thought of someone returning to England in 1907 to marry his sweetheart, then returning to SA alone with his new wife only joineing him some 2 years later, my father then having been born a year later in East London in July 1910 and christened 14/11/1911 aboard the Royal Mail Ship "Gcaleka" en route to Southampton when they visited Southampton to "show off" the latest in the Sparkman line.

I suppose snippets like this form family history but whether they belong in a formal project is up for debate.