Bremerhaven - Londonderry Ferry 1876

18-05-2015 12:02pm #1

Hi,

I paid a couple of euro to access some ship records on ancestry.co.uk last night and have finally solved the mystery of our family's history!

I had tried and failed numerous times over the years, but have finally traced our roots! Technology can really be amazing at times!

My father's family line are from Sweden.

I had seen the Irish census records from 1901 and 1911 and the first of my family is listed there with birth place as Sweden. However, it seems he was extremely illiterate and so were his family, so hence my surname has changed into what it is a today - a phonetic spelling that I can guarantee is one of a kind.

So last night I finally discovered that he was born in Stockholm in 1850, sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany to Londonderry in 1876, where he subsequently sailed to Dublin and settled here.

He was a member of the crew on these ships and his salary appears to be quite high! 312 Sterling was his salary!

I am hoping someone here might be able to tell me why he would have left Sweden to come to Ireland in 1876?

If needed, I have the full records with detailed information about the ship i.e. vessel number etc.

Any information at all will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
Hugo

Hermy · 18-05-2015 1:31pm

Hard to say why he moved without more information.
One of the main reasons people moved around was work.
What was his occupation?
Was his family involved in a particualr line of work?
And what of his role on board ship?

Sometimes it's not possible to ascertain exactly why someone turns up somewhere but with more research you might be able to uncover details that could reveal some of the reason for his move.

18-05-2015 1:48pm

Hermy wrote: »

Hard to say why he moved without more information.
One of the main reasons people moved around was work.
What was his occupation?
Was his family involved in a particualr line of work?
And what of his role on board ship?

Sometimes it's not possible to ascertain exactly why someone turns up somewhere but with more research you might be able to uncover details that could reveal some of the reason for his move.

Hermy,

I've just retrieved some more information.

His occupation before he came to Ireland was "Able-Bodied Seaman." (AB)

Using the vessel name and registration number I have found that the ship is registered on the Mercantile Navy List for 1876. So I'm guessing he was a crew member on this ship, working for the Mercantile Navy.

Unfortunately, there is a huge gap in the Crew List records between 1861 - 1938. Instead of recording Crew Lists during this period, they formed Crew Agreements, which are apparently scattered around archives in Ireland and the UK.

Hopefully I can find a Crew Agreement for "Lois" during that era as apparently it was common for photographs to be kept of the crew members!

He then became a Lamplighter when he settled in Dublin. Do you know if there might be a registry of Dublin City Council workers for that period?

Thanks,
Hugo

Coolnabacky1873 · 18-05-2015 2:38pm

Start with the two possibilities of push and pull factors. Did something cause him to want to/have to leave Sweden (family disagreement, poverty, running from a conviction, sense of adventure, lack of job opportunities, etc.) or did something cause him to want to/have to stay in Ireland (job, romance, pregnancy etc.). Although, it is hard to prove some of these with records.

Your extended family, if there are any, in both Ireland and Sweden might be able to tell you of family stories.

Most of the Swedes in 1901 and 1911 are non-RC, maybe Church records might hold some clues (e.g. birth, marriage)

18-05-2015 6:03pm

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

Start with the two possibilities of push and pull factors. Did something cause him to want to/have to leave Sweden (family disagreement, poverty, running from a conviction, sense of adventure, lack of job opportunities, etc.) or did something cause him to want to/have to stay in Ireland (job, romance, pregnancy etc.). Although, it is hard to prove some of these with records.

Your extended family, if there are any, in both Ireland and Sweden might be able to tell you of family stories.

Most of the Swedes in 1901 and 1911 are non-RC, maybe Church records might hold some clues (e.g. birth, marriage)

Thanks for your reply!

I have just had another look at the 1911 census again, which tells me that his first born son was born in 1888 (about 10 years after his arrival), so pregnancy doesn't seem to have been the reason why he stayed.

My grandmother is still alive and has been able to give me plenty of information about him. She also has his original marriage certificate.

He first settled in the Irishtown/Ringsend area of Dublin, and my family are still there to this day. So there are even some neighbours who remember the original Swede from the 1920s! It's amazing really!

I also think you might be right about him not being Roman Catholic. The original entry under 'religion' appears to be "Church of ........"

This original entry was crossed out and replaced with Roman Catholic, however. So maybe he was a Lutheran or Church of England?

If anyone else has any ideas about where to go from here, please let me know!

Thanks again,
Hugo

Hermy · 18-05-2015 9:29pm

Maybe you already have this but would this be his daughter Annie in 1901 married to John Hendeerson in 1911?

Peregrinus · 19-05-2015 3:30am

Kaylin Shallow Vendor wrote: »

. . . He was a member of the crew on these ships and his salary appears to be quite high! 312 Sterling was his salary!

Might be worth digging a bit further into this because, as stated, it's not really credible. A British seaman of this period was earning, at max, about 4 pounds a month, or 48 pounds a year. Many earned less. A seaman on a foreign vessel would usually earn less - British seamen were the best paid in the world. Even a first mate earned a max of 12 pds 10 per month, which is 150 pounds a years. So 312 pounds is not really credible. Where is this figure coming from?

19-05-2015 5:04pm

Hermy wrote: »

Maybe you already have this but would this be his daughter Annie in 1901 married to John Hendeerson in 1911?

Hermy,

Yes, that's his daughter also.

I forgot to mention her as she was living at a different address! However, there is a gap from 1876 - 1881.

It is strange that he got married in 1876 - within months of arriving in Ireland.

But it does not seem that he married out of wedlock as Annie wasn't born until 1881.

There's definitely a couple of important details I'm missing which will solve the puzzle.

I'm also now in the process of obtaining the crew agreements for his vessel which are stored in an archive in St. Johns, Newfoundland. Hopefully these can provide some more information.

Thanks,
Hugo

19-05-2015 5:07pm

Peregrinus wrote: »

Might be worth digging a bit further into this because, as stated, it's not really credible. A British seaman of this period was earning, at max, about 4 pounds a month, or 48 pounds a year. Many earned less. A seaman on a foreign vessel would usually earn less - British seamen were the best paid in the world. Even a first mate earned a max of 12 pds 10 per month, which is 150 pounds a years. So 312 pounds is not really credible. Where is this figure coming from?

Hi Peregrinus,

I got that information from ancestry.co.uk who are pulling the information from the Maritime History Archive, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.

The format I'm reading is a digitised format however, so it is possible that the figure was transcribed or read incorrectly by the scanner/software.

Thanks,
Hugo

Hermy · 19-05-2015 6:37pm

Kaylin Shallow Vendor wrote: »

I'm also now in the process of obtaining the crew agreements for his vessel which are stored in an archive in St. Johns, Newfoundland. Hopefully these can provide some more information.

That sounds promising - hopefully it has something revealing.

Bremerhaven - Londonderry Ferry 1876

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