Passengers in steerage

[Jean McGurn]

Am I right in thinking that anyone travelling in steerage would have just bought a ticket but not be named on the ships manifest?

Jean

[maryn1913]

not always true,
here's one example:
http://mariner.records.nsw.gov.au/
you can browse lists of crew and passengers, including steerage for many ships in Australian waters.
I'm sure there are others.

[Jean McGurn]

Thanks Mary will have to keep looking. I had wondered as in the film Titanic it showed that Jack won his ticket in a gambling game from another man which would have meant (had this been real life) that he would not have been on the manifest.

 As I have been having trouble to find a couple of ancestors I thought they may have emigrated by travelling steerage as I haven't been able to find them yet.

Will have to try different spellings of names. I do know of one family who are down on census records as McGurn until 1901 census  when for some reason they changed the N to an L and it appears to have stuck like that.

Jean

[johnnyboy]

I should have noted that the following qpplies to travel to the U.S. I have no idea what other countries required.

Hi Jean: Anyone buying a ticket in steerage would more than likely be listed on a manifest, since they were filled out by the steamship company in the port of origin.

The hypothetical case of Leonardo DiCaprio character Jack in Titanic would have depended on whether the manifest was filled out when a passenger bought a ticket or when the person boarded the ship. If the manifest was filled out at the time of purchase, Jack probably would have sailed under the name of the ticket buyer, since passports weren't needed for proving one's identity back then.

I've never seen the movie, but I would guess that Jack's case is a moot point anyway, isn't it!

John