Steve Morse

25 recommendations and reviews from 22 people

• Referral from February 2, 2018
  

  Jane B. asked:

  REVISED: My grandfather, Harry Belmont, immigrated to the US in 1880 leaving Marseilles according to a passport. Where can I look to find passage information? Obviously Ellis Island doesn't have information. I neglected to mention that he went back to Vienna about 1890, then came back to US with his son about 1909-1910. I can find absolutely no record of his voyages...

  

  Ina G. replied:

  Jane-besides the fact that Ellis Island did not exist in 1880 and it was Castle Garden you can try Family Search or Stevemorse.org which are both free sites or if you want to pay you can go on Ancestry.com. What you might want to do with Ancestry is use their 14 day free trial and make sure you mark your calendar so if you don't want to pay for it you can cancel on the 14 th day or before. Good luck.

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• Referral from February 2, 2018
  

  Sheila K. asked:

  Finally: I found information about one side of my family, but am stumped by the other side: Mother's Side: Yetta (Ethel) Rosenfeld and Laib (Louis) Kolof or Kalof (Kale) from Bilylivka, Ukraine (Russia, when they emigrated in the early 1900's) Father's Side: Kirschenbaum from some place near Krakow, Poland, (Austria/Galacia at the time of their immigration. Grandfather's name: Isaac. Grandmother's name: Sarah. They were first cousins before they married. Her father's name was Bernard. Bernard Kirschenbaum was married to a Fortgang. I've looked in JewishGen, GesherGalacia and a few other sources, but have not been able to determine where they are from. Any ideas?

  

  Roger L. replied:

  There's an Isaak KIRSHENBAUM who married Sarah COHEN in NY in 1905. If you can make it to a Family History Center, you can review the marriage record. Use stevemorse.org to pull up the actual record.

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• Referral from November 5, 2017
  

  Bonnie B. asked:

  I am trying to located immigration information on my great great grandfather Harry Aaron Smith (tough name, I know). He was originally from Russia and lived in Argentina working at a piano factory before coming to the US somewhere between 1910 & 1912. His original surname was Smigger (not sure about spelling) and his given name may be Aaron not Harry. I have had no luck with Ellis Island Records or Ancestry.com. Does anyone have any ideas about where I can look for someone who came here from Argentina? where did immigrants from Argentina typically enter the US? I can't even be sure of the name he used in Argentina. And he may not have gone through proper immigration channels when entering Argentina. The story goes he was a merchant marine and jumped ship in Argentina.

  

  Robin M. replied:

  Bonnie - if he naturalized, those papers might give you some hints about his immigration. If not, depending on the ship and the route it took, he could have landed at any US port, maybe even Canada or Mexico and then crossed the border. You can try searching only first name, only last name, wildcard or fragments of first or last name, the many utilities at stevemorse.org.

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• Referral from August 17, 2017
  

  Eddie R. asked:

  where to go to find ellis island information?

  

  Elena W. replied:

  HI Eddie. You can first register with the Ellis Island site libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger and then use the easier format developed by stevemorse.org

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• Referral from August 6, 2017
  

  Dale A. asked:

  can anyone advise me on where to look to get birth info on my grandparents who came from Berezdov, Ukraine? Also, ship manifests from the 1900's? None on ancestry from my family branch. Thank you in advance.

  

  Jeff W. replied:

  Dale Apple, you can access Ellis Island manifests at https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger (you need to register for the website, but it's free). After you've registered, you can use Steve Morse's search engine (http://stevemorse.org/) to locate records using advanced search functions.

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• Referral from May 13, 2017
  

  Eileen H. asked:

  My mother's maternal side had the last name Schutt (sp? rhymes with "put".) We are pretty sure that they came from Galitzia, Poland in the early 20th century and arrived at Ellis Island where their names were changed to Shultz or Schultz. Anyone have any idea about this surname? JewishGen has a "sounds like" feature and some pretty interesting alternate spelling, some beginning with a "Ts".

  

  Leah C. replied:

  Here are the results from Steve Morse's page (stevemorse.org) for researching Ashkenazi surnames. In Galicia (djsg), I see only "Schott".

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• Referral from February 22, 2017
  

  Jennifer M. asked:

  Finally got the naturalization papers of someone I suspect is first cousin of my grandfather's. Have been unable to locate him on a ship as of yet. The problem is that the ship he names, according to ancestry, was not in service until 1908, and he claims to have arrived in 1890. Thoughts? Workarounds? Thanks.

  

  Laurel P. replied:

  Great site for sure. And unfortunately not surprised by the amount of variation. http://www.stevemorse.org/

  

  Debra H. replied:

  I tracked down "my" Harry Hirsch's ship's record by changing facts entered on Steve Morse's search engine. I wan't lie, it took hours but mine was transcribed as Hirt Herskovitz.

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• Referral from January 27, 2016
  

  Sue B. asked:

  Are there any sources to obtain a ship manifest other than the ellis island website ?

  

  Ellen F. replied:

  http://www.stevemorse.org/ Great website...also has a search tool

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• Referral from October 9, 2015
  

  Anna T. asked:

  Can anyone help decipher this, please? I'm guessing it says "brother J Lippman, 21 Butcher Place, NY" at least that would make some sense based on the names we have. The person immigrating is Berl Lipkunsky. Thanks.

  

  Elise F. replied:

  This column always lists a name and address, never an occupation. It's likely that "butcher" is a misunderstanding of a street name in Manhattan, although it could be Brooklyn or perhaps even the Bronx. Less likely to be a street outside of the 5 boroughs, otherwise the address would normally include the town. I just took a quick look through the streets in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx in 1905 (this manifest is from 1903) using the NY census AD/ED finder on stevemorse.org and saw several possible alternatives to Butcher, but none that I can definitively say is the correct one.

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• Referral from September 22, 2015
  

  Dovi S. asked:

  Where can I find immigration records from 1911 for free? (No clue where the person left from or which state they landed in, in the USA)

  

  E. S. replied:

  http://www.stevemorse.org/

  

  Avivah P. replied:

  Check Steve Morse's One Step web site for links to different ports

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• Referral from March 20, 2015
  

  Beverly S. asked:

  Are there any records of Russian jewish labor camps?

  

  Aaron B. replied:

  Try Jewishgen.org and Stevemorse.org The latter site has some Russia-specific searches. The first site has a Holocaust victims database. Also, USHMM has a victims and Holocaust survivors database.

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• Referral from October 26, 2014
  

  Riva F. asked:

  Any tips for looking for people in the Ellis Island records? 1) I can't seem to find any trace of my family. 2) I'm having trouble getting the same set of results 2x in a row. Btw, I'm looking for Feshbach (I don't know the date) and Lapiner (1911, I believe). Thanks for any clues or suggestions.

  

  Jody T. replied:

  Use the stevemorse.org Search engine.

  

  David E. replied:

  The Gold Form on stevemorse.org is the best way to search for immigration manifests, and you may need to be both creative and a bit twisted to find what you're looking for. The general rule is that the manifests were entered at the port of embarkation...See More

  

  Barb S. replied:

  If you use Steve Morse's site, just leave the port if arrival blank.

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• Referral from October 26, 2014
  

  Bob P. asked:

  Advice/help needed. Is it possible to search the 1940 census by an address? I have my great grandmother's death certificate (1946) thanks to Ancestry. She was a widow in 1946, and I'm almost sure her husband passed away before 1940. I forund several Rose Cohens but nothing I can match to the address. TIA. This is a great group.

  

  David E. replied:

  Steve Morse's search site (stevemorse.org) lets you look up enumeration districts by street address. Note that the EDs changed from census to census.

  

  Natalie H. replied:

  Before the 1940 indexing was done, I searched for my parents and my grandmother because I knew the addresses, I did it through Steve Morse' site, but I had to look up the Enumeration District first, then search page for the exact address. You probably ...See More

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• Referral from October 13, 2014
  

  Susan W. asked:

  Please clarify. Is Ellis Island charging now to see a record? What's up with that? I wanted to see a record where the name is quite mangled and so I went to their new site, which I do not like, and don't even know if that's the relative and they are asking me to pay $29.99?!?!? I must be doing something wrong. Any suggestions? tks

  

  Chuck W. replied:

  Use the Steve Morse site at www.stevemorse.org to view the manifests. To get a copy of the manifest will cost you $30. However, you can do a screen print.

  

  Joy K. replied:

  When I started to use it after the change, I still searched by using Steve Morse's site; I then had to create a new log in, but then I was taken to the correct manifest. I haven't had too much time to play around with the site, but I found the manifest on Ancestry and saved it there. Pretty round about … for now.

  

  Natalie H. replied:

  Next week Steve Morse is speaking to our local genealogy club and I will ask him about the Ellis Island new web site problem during the Q&A. If anyone has an answer, he's the one!

  

  Jody T. replied:

  That site has been a problem before the revision. The transcriptions are terrible and the only way to negotiate it both previously and now has been Steve Morse's web page. They must have used people with no skill to transcribe the names. For example my aunt was Lewin and they transcribed it as Lervin. And it was clear as day.

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• Referral from July 30, 2014
  

  Mario M. asked:

  I visited Ellis Island, and the staff was friendly and tried be helpful, but unfortunately they could not help me find the immigration dates/info of my Great-Grandfather... Any suggestions for other places I can try looking for that info? I do know he came to New York through Ellis Island.

  

  The I. replied:

  Try using www.stevemorse.org which gives more options for searching www.ellisisland.org.

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• Referral from January 1, 2014
  

  David K. asked:

  Would someone like to recommend Ancestry or Mocavo, or My Heritage? I currently have Ancestry but am tempted to try another.

  

  Debra P. replied:

  just an fyi also if you haven't used this site..try it. http://stevemorse.org/

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• Referral from August 20, 2013
  

  Renee K. asked:

  I need to go through the 1865 NY census and am trying to figure out what ward in Brooklyn someone lived in. Are there any lists or maps which could help me out? I know where an individual had a store at 154 Norfolk St. in 1878, so my assumption is that he lived somewhere near there when he came to America in 1861. Which wards would be the ones I, more than likely, need to go through. Thanks so much.

  

  Wendi N. replied:

  Try Stephen Morses one-step pages: http://stevemorse.org/

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