There must be dozens (or many anyway) of ways to locate information about ship sailings of genealogical significance. Today I used several sources to locate and document a record. They include:
familysearch.org
Ancestry.com
http://www.germanroots.com/ny1847.html
http://www.cyndislist.com/ports-entry/
https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Ellis_Island,_Castle_Garden,_etc.
https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York_Emigration_and_Immigration

The New York Times often listed ship arrivals each day in a column called “Marine Intelligence.” Below is notice of the ship that brought my great-grandparents Elias and Rachel to New York.

 

After finding the ship manifest for Elias and Rachel, two of my great great grandparents, I wondered what else I could discover about this part of their emigration and immigration to the U.S. I know that this part of the family was considered a German immigrant in regards to their landing in NYC.

They sailed on the S/S Rhynland, Red Star Line. The Ships List tells me that she was a 3,689 gross ton ship built in 1879, length 402.8ft x beam 40.2ft, one funnel, four masts, iron construction, single screw and a speed of 14 knots. Accommodation was provided for 150-1st and 1,000-3rd class passengers. Their ship sailed every Saturday between Antwerp and Castle Garden NY. I do not yet know their passage rates but Spring and Summer rates from an ad are: First cabin, $60 to $100; excursion, $110 to $180; second cabin, $45; excursion, $80 and $85. Steerage at very low rates.
Peter Wright & Sons, Gen. Agents, 55 B’way.

The Red Star Line alone carried about two million immigrants across the Atlantic. A quarter of them were Jewish, including Albert Einstein.

I think about their voyage and what they did on the ship. Did the men play games, the women play at the piano and sing, or were my relatives in a different part of the ship altogether?

Phew, it took ages, over the ages, to locate the passenger list for one pair of my great great grandparents Elias and Rachel. Some time ago I had already found the ship manifest for his emigration voyage. It’s indexed under the name Elias Perbolner, which is not too far off from a valid surname spelling. But where to find the New York arrival list.

Today I took a different tack. And I think that is an appropriate verb considering I was looking for a ship. Some in this family used a completely different surname and I have not figured out why. That is another story, however.

Today with the sailing date and an approximate number of days they would be expected to be at sea, I searched under a first name only. I figured that leaving Hamburg with the first (given) name of Elias, he might arrive and have the same recognisable name on this side of the Atlantic. From the departure list, I could not tell the name of the ship but I had enough information to plug into one of Steve Morse‘s databases. And from there I got to a next step which eventually led me to use his first name and find not too many records to look at.

It’s no wonder to me now that I could not locate his name or the other family members. Their surname is entered as Vorlobna. From the image, I included here you can understand how the spelling was indexed incorrectly. I can see how that mistake was made, and it took me a long time to use different methods to find this record.