Millvina Dean, Last Survivor of the Titanic, Dies

Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic sinking, died on May 31 at age 97. She was nine weeks old when her family boarded the Titanic in 1912. Her mother and brother also survived the sinking. Her father died in the tragedy. You can read more here: Millvina Dean, last remaining survivor of the Titanic, dies aged 97


The above image is a portion of the Carpathia passenger list showing the three surviving members of the Dean family, siblings Bertram and Elizabeth (two-month-old Eliza) and their mother Georgette (Ettie). The Carpathia rescued 705 of the Titanic's survivors and brought them to New York on April 18, 1912. See: Partial List of Survivors of the Titanic who were taken aboard the Carpathia at the U.S. National Archives website.

James Cameron, director of the popular film, Titanic, along with two of the film's stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, donated money to help pay Millvina Dean's nursing home costs in her last days.

For information on Titanic passenger records see the New York section at... What Passenger Lists are Online?

For more on Titanic survivors see the Titanic category on the right side.

FamilySearch Labs adds Death Indexes for 4 Southern States

The FamilySearch Labs website has recently added death indexes (some with digitized images) for four Southern states. These are:

Alabama Deaths 1908-1974
Florida Deaths 1877-1939
North Carolina Deaths 1906-1930 (with images)
South Carolina Deaths 1915-1943 (with images)
South Carolina Deaths 1944-1955

These indexes are now available at FamilySearch Record Search

Formerly at: FamilySearch Labs Record Search

For more death indexes for these states see:

• Online Alabama Death Records Indexes and Obituaries
• Online Florida Death Records Indexes and Obituaries
• Online North Carolina Death Records Indexes and Obituaries
• Online South Carolina Death Records Indexes and Obituaries

This article was updated on 8 January 2011.

Search Strategies for Finding Ship Passenger Lists 1820-1940s

This article was updated on 8 April 2014.

Here are some suggestions for finding your immigrant ancestors on a ship passenger list (or manifest) for their arrival in the United States from 1820 to the 1940s (1950s for some ports).

Search Tips

• Clues in the Census: the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 US federal censuses have a column for year of arrival for immigrants. This can help narrow down the search. Be careful as census records may contain errors.
• Naturalization Records: Naturalization records created September 27, 1906 and later will usually give the name of the ship, port and date of arrival. Naturalization records before that usually do not give this information (although some might). You may sometimes find errors in these records.
• Be sure to try alternate spellings of names when searching online databases or other indexes.

Ancestry.com's Immigration Records Collection
Ancestry has digitized and indexed microfilm of National Archives passenger records for the major ports (New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans) as well as many smaller ports. These can be searched online if you have an Ancestry subscription (fee required). This can be a good place to start your search because they have so many records in one place. And you don't need to know the name of the port where your ancestor arrived, or the date of arrival.

• Ancestry's Immigration Records Collection (fee-based)

Port by Port Search
If you're having difficulty finding your ancestor's passenger list you might try a more specific search at each port. If you don't know the arrival port or don't know where to start, you can find some ideas at: Tips for Determining Your Ancestor's Probable Port of Arrival

• Finding Passenger Lists and Immigration Records 1820-1940s is a basic research guide for finding passenger records, listed by the major ports and some of the smaller ports
• Ship Passenger Lists and Records on the Internet lists some Internet sources for transcribed passenger records and indexes

• New York Indexes and the Ellis Island Database...
  The largest port where immgrants arrived in the U.S. is New York. Most people with European immigrant ancestors will probably want to search New York arrivals first, unless they know their immigrant ancestor arrived elsewhere. Here are some tools and articles which may be helpful for finding New York passenger arrivals:
• New York Passenger Lists Research Guide
• Ellis Island Database: for New York arrivals 1892-1924
• Searching the Ellis Island Database in One Step can be a useful tool for searching the Ellis Island Database
• Castle Garden Database indexes some NY arrivals from about 1830-1892 (may have some omissions or errors)
• Ellis Island? Castle Garden? Which One? And When? is an article about New York's immigrant processing centers
• Boston...
• Boston Passenger Lists Research Guide
• Baltimore...
• Baltimore Passenger Lists Research Guide
• Philadelphia...
• Philadelphia Passenger Lists Research Guide
• New Orleans...
  If your immigrant ancestor settled in St. Louis, Missouri or along the Mississippi river (especially prior to the Civil War), he or she may have landed at New Orleans and taken a riverboat up the Mississippi.
• New Orleans Passenger Lists Research Guide
• Smaller Ports, West Coast Ports and Border Crossing Records...
• US Ports of Arrival and their Available Passenger Lists 1820-1957 is a list of many United States ports with information about the available passenger records and indexes. Includes information about Canadian and Mexican border crossing records.

Indexes for Various Ethnic Groups: Germans to America, Italians to America, Irish Immigrants, etc.
Some ship passenger indexes have been created for various ethnic groups and these may be helpful as alternate resources if you can't find your immigrant ancestor in other indexes.

• The Germans to America (1850-1897), Italians to America (1855-1900), Russian Immigrants (1834-1897) and Irish Famine Immigrants (1846-1851) databases can be searched online at the National Archives website: Passenger Lists - Access to Archival Databases (AAD)
• For more details on these indexes and others see:
  
  • Germans to America, Irish Immigrants, Italians to America, Russians to America, and Dutch Immigrants in U. S. Ship Passenger Manifests
  • Armenian, Bohemian, Czech, Greek, Luxembourgish and Swedish Ship Passenger List Resources

Passenger Lists and Indexes on MicrofilmAlthough many of the National Archives publications of ship passenger lists have been digitized and put online, you may still want to use these microfilms in your search. A little old school genealogy can sometimes go a long way...

• Microfilm Roll Numbers for USA Passenger Arrival Records includes National Archives and Family History Library microfilm roll numbers
• Also see the individual port links above.

Disclaimer: you might not find the person you're looking for in any of the indexes or records listed here; these are merely suggestions.

Online Military Records and Indexes - New Additions and Updates

Links to the items listed below have been added to the Directory of Online Military Indexes, Records and Rosters of Soldiers

Revolutionary War
- Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements (partial collection)
- Alabama: Alphabetical List of Revolutionary Soldiers in Alabama

War of 1812
- Indiana Territory: War of 1812 Collection (consists of muster, pay and receipt rolls of Indiana territory volunteers or militia)

Civil War
- Arkansas Confederate Pension Records Index
- Delaware: Records Related to Delaware's Involvement in the American Civil War (from the Delaware Public Archives)
- Georgia Confederate Veteran Grave Database (work in progress)
- Kansas Virtual Civil War Cemetery Tombstone Photos (not complete, but has over 11,000 photographs of grave markers of Civil War veterans buried in Kansas - searchable by name)
- Mississippi Confederate Grave Registry
- Nebraska Civil War Veterans Database
- Oregon: Index to 1890 Veterans Census
- South Carolina: The New South Newspaper 1862-1866, Port Royal and Beaufort, South Carolina (digitized and searchable)

Spanish American War
- Kansas Troops in the Volunteer Service of the United States in the Spanish and Philippine Wars

World War One
- Denver Public Library World War I Indexes (includes: Fallen Heroes of World War I from Denver, Colorado; Colorado World War I Draft Registration Cards Index; Colorado World War I Draft Registration Index - Minorities; Colorado World War I Casualties Buried in Europe)
- Oregon WWI Draft Registration Index
- International WWI Section, Australia: World War I Service Records
- International WWI Section, New Zealand: New Zealand and World War One Assorted Indexes

World War Two
- Iowa: World War II Iowa Press Clippings Digital Collection
- Ohio: Cleveland Servicemen's Photographs Index 1940-1955
- International WWII Section, Canada: Second World War Service Files Canadian Armed Forces War Dead

Korean War
- Korean War/Access to Archival Databases (AAD) includes Korean War casualties, wounded, prisoners of war and missing in action

Vietnam War
- Vietnam War/Access to Archival Databases (AAD) includes Vietnam War casualties, wounded, prisoners of war, missing in action, and more items

See: Online Military Indexes and Records