The Squire and I went down to the Maryland Historical Society today to do some research on both of our family trees. Unfortunately, neither of us had much luck. He was looking for graves in Frederick County and I was looking for information on immigrant ships that sailed into Baltimore.
I have a copy of my great-great-grandfather’s passport application, so I know when he arrived, but my mother had told me he sailed on a ship called The Ohm, which burned and sank in Baltimore’s harbour. She had a half dozen beautiful Bavarian china cups and saucers which she said came from the ship. (I wonder what ever became of them, as a matter of fact.) The research librarian helped me look for the manifest from that ship, with no success and then went into the microfilm to see if he could find some record of it. The Baltimore Sun made no mention such a ship; even in the days of steam ships, you’d think an event of that sort would have warranted at least a line or two.
I should have known better.
This is the same woman who told me one of my great-grandfathers had checked himself into a local mental hospital because the Jehovah’s Witnesses had driven him crazy. (Which, when you stop to think about it, is pretty crazy all by itself.) One of my cousins, also descended from this same man, told me that the hospital in question had at one time housed both a tuberculosis ward and a mental ward. And guess where dear Julius was?
So I am completely back to Square One. The manifests are there, and I have the year – maybe – but the passengers are not listed in alphabetical order, so I will have to sit down with a magnifying glass and have at it. Maybe they arrived in January.
One can hope.
thisendoftheswamp 