Immigrant Names & Manifest Searches presented by Dr. Joel Weintraub

Meet and Greet: 12:30 pm

Presentation begins: 1:00 pm                    

Due to Mother’s Day occurring on the 2^nd Sunday of May,

 this event will occur on the 3^rd Sunday of this  month

Immigrant Names and Manifest Searches   

Presenter: Dr. Joel Weintraub

Description:

Joel will begin his presentation showing us how Certificate of Arrival (C/A) immigrant requests were managed by the Naturalization Bureau in the 1920s. Next, he will discuss the spellings of immigrant names, and how they impact these searches. Using immigrants’ own words from actual online C/A applications, he will give examples of why they used multiple names or spellings (mostly their given (first) names). Next, he will describe the problems and their solutions, such as researching applications where the Immigration Service could not, initially, verify the port/ship/date of arrival and searches of a person arriving under another person’s name and the naturalization consequences. He will conclude with a discussion of Ellis Island swindles involving modification of the ship manifest.

Bio:
Our presenter, Dr. Joel Weintraub, Biology Professor Emeritus from Cal State Fullerton became interested in genealogy over 20 years ago and volunteered for 9 years at the National Archives in southern California.  Joel helped produce location tools for 1900 through 1950 federal censuses, and the NY State censuses for NYC (1905, 1915, 1925) and for the Steve Morse “One-Step” website.  He has published articles since retiring on the U.S. census and the 72-year rule. He has a YouTube channel with his genealogy and field biology talks at “JDW Talks”.

Join us at 12:30pm PT - before the meeting - for a meet and greet.  Get to know the other genealogists attending our meeting.