Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records

Recently John Reid, of the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog fame, and I paid an in-person visit to the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre located beside the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Please note, this is not the same as Library and Archives Canada, so don't drop by the LAC building on Wellington if you are wanting to look at these actual records. 

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 30 Sep 2024), Miscelanious Records > 1950-1955 > Ships-Memorabilia > image 2 of 9, Canadian Pacific Steamships crest; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, "Ships - Memorabilia, 1950-1955", reference CPS-04-0509 folder.

We were there to learn about their collaboration with Ancestry to digitize and make available the records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company (CPS). John Reid wrote about our visit there in his post "Resources of Ingenium Library and Archives". The digitized records were released online in June 2024 in Ancestry's "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981" collection. It is important to note that not all the items in the collection have been digitized. Some of the large foldout ship diagrams and other large documents weren't digitized.

What makes this collection exciting for genealogy and family history researchers is the time period it covers. For Canada, we generally only have incoming passenger lists up to 1935. But what about after that time? This is where you might get lucky and find your kin mentioned in the records if they sailed on one of the Canada Pacific Steamship ships between 1897 to 1981.

However, before you dive into the records make sure you read the descriptions of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Limited fonds and their sub-series hosted on Archeion. These description gives you the history of the CPS along with details about the various series to help you understand what you might find.

Here is the search screen on Ancestry:

Screen capture of Ancestry's "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981" collection (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 24 Sep 2024).

If you are like me, you may have recorded the names of the ships and when your ancestors sailed on them in your genealogy software. Yet how do we know which ships were operated by the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company? Fortunately we have a list of the ships operated by the CPS found on Wikipedia in their "List of ships of CP Ships" article. 

Using that list of ships I searched my database and found about 35 people who sailed on the various Empress and Duchess ships of the CPS. Out of that list I actually came across passenger indexes for only two of them. Yet that is still two more lists of passengers than what I started with. Here is a page from the index for tourist class on board the Empress of Britain from Liverpool to Quebec with my 2nd cousin twice removed, Cora McTavish, listed.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Cora E. McTavish, age 46, arrived 24 Sep 1959 at Quebec, P.Q. onboard the Empress of Britain; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Reference Number: X0450.

You might be wondering how I knew that Cora was on this ship? I used the BT27 series of records held by The National Archives in England and made available on various genealogy site in searchable databases such as Ancestry's "UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960" collection and Findmypast's "Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960" collection.

Going to the first page of that passenger index on Ancestry I found that the Empress of Britain arrived in Quebec City on 24 Sep 1959. Along the way, the ship also stopped at Greenock, Scotland.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Passenger Index cover page for the Empress of Britain, arrived 24 Sep 1959 at Quebec, P.Q.; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company.

Yet what else can one find in this collection?

I also came across her name in the list of Tourist Passengers when she went from Montreal to Liverpool on board the Empress of England. She is listed with her cabin numbers along with an indicator that she was in the first seating for dinner.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Cora E. McTavish, Tourist Passengers, Empress of England, 21 Jul 1959, from Montreal to Liverpool via Greenock; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Reference Number: CPS-01-0030.

Maybe I'm interested in what may have happened on the voyage of the Empress of Britain that Cora was on when she came back to Canada. Using the "Browse this collection" on the right side of the search screen we can also browse the collections for other tidbits of information for record groups such as:

• Crew of Passenger Lists
• Immigration Regulations and Policy
• Journals, Logs, and Ship Movement Books
• Miscelanious Records [yes, that is a typo on Ancestry's part!]
• Named Ships
• Programmes, Menues, and Events
• Promotional Artwork
• Schedules and Fares
• Ships Officers, or Company Officials
• Voyage Reports

Along with the date of arrival or departure, often the key to finding these other documents that can shed some light on the voyages of our ancestors is the voyage number. 

If I didn't know voyage number from that manifest, I might have then looked for the Empress of Britain departing on September 18, 1959 in the Movement Book found in "Journals, Logs, and Ship Movement Books" record group.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Journals, Logs, and Ship Movements Books > 1959 > Movement Book No. 40 > image 29  of 226, p 10, Empress of Britain, Voyage 55; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Movement Book No. 40.

There are also the voyage reports. With just a few clicks of the mouse I found out the details about Voyage No. 55, both from England to Canada and the return back to England.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Voyage Reports > 1959 > Captain's General Voyage Report-Empress of Britain-Voyage No. 55 > image 2 of 29; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company.

In this sort of report we find the ports visited, times of arrivals and departures at the various ports, number of passengers embarking and debarking at the various ports, possibly how any cargo was stored, the names and positions of the officers, if a stowaway was found (yes, on the return to England), reports by the doctor (two deaths during the return to England), and a daily summary of the happenings on board the ship.

I had mentioned that the larger fold out pages haven't been digitized by Ancestry from this collection. In some cases you will need to visit the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre in Ottawa to view these large scale documents and pages for yourself. However, sometimes other organizations have digitized the material they have on hand. Such was the case for the deck plans of the Empress of Britain from 1955-1959 when I found them in a digitized on The University of British Columbia library site within The Chung Collection.

The "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981" collection on Ancestry is one of those collections where name searching only uncovers part of the story of your ancestor's trip. Be curious and explore the browsable series within this collection to learn more about their voyage.