* Trans-Atlantic Passenger Lists

[Adjer]

My brick wall for many years is the disappearance of my Grt Grandfather William Bradley (b.1841 in Dudley Worces) between August 1881 & September 1882. Family story says he emigrated to America & never came back.I have a press cutting about a request from his wife to the Brewster Court in Chesterfield Sept 1882 for a licence to sell beer from their grocery shop. It mentions that since he has gone to America he cannot be given a licence, so it seems that the story is true. His 13th & last child was born in May 1882 so did not leave before about Aug 1881. Also he was present in Chesterfield the April 1881 census.
I have searched the passenger lists for him on Ancestry & Find My Past but not found him. My question :
Is it worthwhile subscribing to The Genealogist to see if he is on their passenger lists?
Also any other suggestions on this topic are welcome.
Thanks: Adjer.

[Valkrider]

I had a quick look on The Genealogist for you no William Bradley 1840-1842 in the emigration records.

[tatewise]

It may not help much, but in FMP a search in British records for:
First Name: William (with name variants)
Last Name: Bradley (with name variants)
When Year: 1881 +/-5yrs
Category: Travel & Migration
found just three entries for W Bradley in 1881/1882 in the Index to Register of Passport Applications 1851-1903 but no other details except the day/month/year of application.

[LornaCraig]

A search on the Castle Garden site http://www.castlegarden.org/searcher.php for William Bradley from 1881 to 1882 produces 8 people of that name. However your William would have been about 40, and those in the list range in age from 11 to 30.

(Castle Garden was the main US immigration centre until 1892 when Ellis Island took over).

You say you have tried Ancestry and Findmypast, but have you tried the FamilySearch site? https://familysearch.org/hr/search
If you enter search parameters:
William Bradley
Birthplace England, from 1839 to 1843
Any (event) USA, from 1880 to 1883
you will get a list of William Bradleys to work through, some with images of Boston Passenger lists, but again either the ages or the occupations don’t look right. (There was one arrived in November 1883, age 40, but he was a mariner not a grocer).

Another search to try on FamilySearch is
William Bradley
Birthplace England, from 1839 to 1843
Death USA, from 1882 to (say) 1940
That throws up several William Bradleys who were born in England around 1841 and died in USA after 1882. Some of these have images of gravestones and precise birth dates as well as death dates. These may be useful if you know his exact date of birth.

[Valkrider]

I had a quick look on The Genealogist for you no William Bradley 1840-1842 in the emigration records.

OOPS sorry I misread the dates in your question a recheck reveals 2 records for emigration The first a Farmer, so unlikely to be yours, the second has no detail visible to me. You need a Diamond subscription to view this record and I only have Gold.

[Adjer]

Many many thanks to all who replied.
Yes I have found passport applications for the correct dates which could be him & had the same results with the Castle Garden site. I will try the Family Search ideas suggested as that is new to me & report back here after the festivities. A very Merry Christmas to you all. Adjer.

[jmurphy]

A search on the Castle Garden site http://www.castlegarden.org/searcher.php for William Bradley from 1881 to 1882 produces 8 people of that name. However your William would have been about 40, and those in the list range in age from 11 to 30.

(Castle Garden was the main US immigration centre until 1892 when Ellis Island took over).

You say you have tried Ancestry and Findmypast, but have you tried the FamilySearch site? https://familysearch.org/hr/search
If you enter search parameters:
William Bradley
Birthplace England, from 1839 to 1843
Any (event) USA, from 1880 to 1883
you will get a list of William Bradleys to work through, some with images of Boston Passenger lists, but again either the ages or the occupations don’t look right. (There was one arrived in November 1883, age 40, but he was a mariner not a grocer).

Another search to try on FamilySearch is
William Bradley
Birthplace England, from 1839 to 1843
Death USA, from 1882 to (say) 1940
That throws up several William Bradleys who were born in England around 1841 and died in USA after 1882. Some of these have images of gravestones and precise birth dates as well as death dates. These may be useful if you know his exact date of birth.

Lorna has made a good start for you by looking at Castle Garden and Boston arrival lists, but that is not exhaustive. There are many other ports of entry into the US.

One of my go-to sites for finding passenger lists online is Joe Beine's site German Roots. Start with the page Emigration and Immigration Records and Resources and you'll see links to Joe's guides on the many individual ports of arrival into the US.

The other thing to consider is whether William Bradley might have come through Canada and crossed into the USA afterwards. If that's the case, it's a problem, because the US records of Border Crossings from Canada didn't start until 1895. (I found this out the hard way, by signing up for a World sub on Ancestry first, and then finding out afterwards that no records exist for the period I wanted.)

[Adjer]

Many thanks to Lorna & jmuphy for excellent suggestions. The search is going to take some time as there were many William Bradley's in the USA at this time. He does not appear in the 1900 USA census so that cuts it down a bit.
I am currently working through the eastern states. Rhode Island has one possibility at Woonsocket. When complete, I will try this interesting site for transatlantic passengers to see it I can pin down where William Bradley entered the USA. I have already tried the Canada idea some time ago but found nothing. My original starting information says "he went to America & never came back". I'm not sure if Canada was a separate country at that time.
Happy New Year to all who responded, Adjer

[Peter Collier]

Canada has never been part of the the USA. Ignoring the earliest colonial history, which is a little complicated, what we now call Canada was a group of British colonies and provinces that began to federate in 1867. Canada gained full independence de facto in 1931, and de jure in 1982 when its final constitutional ties with the UK were severed.

At the time you are looking at, entry north of the USA would probably have been into Canada, but Newfoundland is also a possibility as it was still a separate Dominion at that time (it did not join Canada until 1949).