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You've got questions about discovering, preserving and celebrating your family history; our experts have the answers.
Born at Sea
A.In The Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors (Family Tree Books, $19.99), author Sharon DeBartolo Carmack says babies born at sea are generally listed on the last page of a ship's passenger manifest, or at the bottom of a page where the ship's clerk could find room.
Strange markings in the margins next to a name are a clue to check the last page of a list, or the ship's Record of Detained Aliens and Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry (these are on supplemental pages of the list, following pages with the passengers' names). See www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/manifests for help deciphering unfamiliar notations on passenger lists.
The list won't always give you a clear indication that a passenger gave birth on board, though, so if you suspect such an event, scan the entire list.
Parents could seek birth certificates for newborns once they arrived at their destination. That doesn't mean they always did, particularly before state-mandated birth recording. For help looking for your ancestors' birth records—including what to do when you can't find a record—see the December 2006 Family Tree Magazine.
In modern times, when a birth or death occurs at sea or on an airplane, the birth is reported at the next port of call (see www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/wtow4.htm for information). Learn more about in-flight births and the baby's citizenship at people.howstuffworks.com/air-birth.htm.
Diane Haddad is editor of the Family Tree Magazine E-Mail Update newsletter. Get more Q&A with the experts using our Now What? Online index.
Pose your questions to our family history experts.
Q. If someone was born aboard an immigrant ship traveling to America, how and where is the birth recorded?
—Diane Haddad
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