Genealogy Jottings

One keeps working backwards in genealogy. After searching most of the American records that I can find for my Finnish family, I must now step back in time to locate their immigration records, here and in Finland. To begin,  I should look at ship passenger lists for 1905 or so.

Luckily for me, the name of the ship and approximate date of arrival appear on Alexander Mattila’s naturalization record. He arrived in Boston on the Ivernia in April 1905. The passenger list was simple for me to find.

Unfortunately, he traveled alone, and Ada Alina Mattila’s name does not appear on the Ivernia for that crossing. Perhaps he went to America first to earn money to send to his wife for her trip.

Since women at that time derived their citizenship from their husbands, Ada had no naturalization record of her own that I can consult for clues to her immigration date. I will have to locate her ship passage the old-fashioned way, by searching every index I can find. It may take some time to identify her record because Mattila was a common name in Finland. Many, many young Mattilas immigrated to the United States. I need to sort through all those who are listed under A., Ada, Aida, Alina, Alinia, Elina, etc. to find a young woman fitting her age, marital status, and intended destination.

I do have the search narrowed to a time window from June 1905 to November 1906. These represent the dates between when Ada received her Finnish passport and to when her first child was born in Minnesota. Still, those steamships came over every day. I have numerous passenger lists to check.