Caveat lector!

On the Who Do You Think You Are? episode first broadcast in Canada on Sunday, July 25, 2022 the show focused on Stephen Hopkins, an ancestor of Allison Janney. In that episode they used the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection found on Ancestry as the hook to start the story.

Right away the title of the collection should set off alarm bells in a good researcher's brain for it is an index. Indexes themselves are not a bad thing for they quite often point us to the source material and can act as a holding citation in our research until we can find and read the source document. Yet how many of us actually pay attention to details recorded in the index?

Before looking at the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection on Ancestry I just want to note that the source citation information displayed on the computer Ms. Janney was using differs slightly from what I see on my own desktop. Nothing major though, just information displayed on different tabs or in a different order. On the show Ms. Janney was looking at the "Citation details" tab of the record to read the details of the place, Bermuda, and year, 1609-1910, concerning Stephen Hopkins. Here is the same information found in the "Ancestry record" tab.

Screen capture of the Ancestry record tab for Stephen Hopkins arriving 1609-1610 in Bermuda from the Source citation for U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500-1900s found on Ancestry.

In this case there really is some great information found in Ancestry's source citation. We learn the arrival years, 1609-1610, and the place, Bermuda. Just like what Ms. Janney read. Yet what is even more important for us as researchers is we learn that the information has been extracted from Terry Tucker's book "Bermuda - Unintended Destination, 1609-1610" published by Island Press Ltd in Bermuda in 1978. The Ancestry record even tells you that you are looking at persons aboard the Sea Venture which was wrecked off Bermuda. If you could find a copy of Terry Tucker's book then you could see if there are included source citations to follow up on. You could even check for other documents and books at archives, libraries, and museums about the Sea Venture and it's unexpected stop at Bermuda.

However, not all the extracts found in the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection are as good. This is where "caveat lector" comes into play.

We need to rewind just a bit...

When I first ran into this collection a decade ago I was looking for information about my 3rd great-grandfather Luke McMullen who settled in the North Elmsley area of what is now Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. I had already found Luke and his family in the 1851 and 1861 censuses of Canada West. So I knew had had arrived before 12 Jan 1852, the official date of the 1851 census of Canada West (yes, the 1851 census of Canada West took place in 1852). I even knew that his oldest daughter was baptized in 1845 in Perth, Lanark County, Canada West so he should have been in Canada by that date.

Screen capture of the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500-1900s" collection record for Luke McMullen arriving 1871 in Ontario, Canada found on Ancestry.

Yet, as we can see from the above screen capture for Luke McMullen's entry in the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection, it states he arrived in 1871 in Ontario, Canada.

What gives?

This is where, as researchers, we actually have to read the details in and about the record and not just blindly and quickly click on accept before moving on to the next record like a relay race.

First of all, for this collection always read the source bibliography. In this case we learn that the information is from Bruce S. Elliott's "Index to the 1871 Census of Ontario: Lanark" published by the Ontario Genealogical Society in 1992. Right away a yellow flag should be raised in your mind. We have an index pointing to an index. So we will probably want to look at the source documents that Mr. Elliott used to create his index: the 1871 Census of Ontario for Lanark County.

The next place to look on the record from Ancestry is the information in the "Annotation" section. Here we learn that the information concerning the arrival and place is actually the date and place of the census. 

What the <bleep>!

It seems that this record from the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection for Luke McMullen has nothing to do with when the person actually arrived in Ontario, Canada. All it tells us is that the person was enumerated in Ontario, Canada in 1871. Now some of the censuses of Canada do include a date of immigration but the 1871 census of Canada isn't one of them.

Even more challenging for those using the various censuses of Canada is that, unlike the United States or England enumerations, the census location recorded is supposed to be based on the official residence or abode of the person and not necessarily where they were on that date. I touch about that challenge in my post "Annie Leontine Chipman and a Census Mystery".

This is why it is always, Always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS important for us to read the details about how a record in an index entry on any genealogy site, not just Ancestry, was created. This is even more important when an index has drawn its material from multiple source like what we find for the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection. 

Then we need to follow those bread crumbs to the source documents. Sometimes it may be going from one index to another index until we actually can find and view the original document, whether it be in a paper or digital format. 

So remember:

Caveat lector!