Genealogy Jottings

As I continue my project to document the lives of my Finnish great-grandparents, I keep working back in time. I have been seeking ship passenger lists for all the family members who immigrated in the early 1900’s, and I have located most of them. Only the record for my great-grandmother, Ada Alina Mattila, eludes me. She did not travel with her husband on the Ivernia in April, 1905.

Years ago I searched Finnish passport records and found that she applied for one from Viipuri in June, 1905. Everyone else in the family had sailed to Boston shortly after acquiring a passport, but Ada’s name does not appear on the index for Boston or any other major port. We know she had reached the U.S. by November, 1906 when she bore my grandmother in Minnesota. Why no ship passenger record for her?

I have tried using every possible variation of her name that I can think of with no luck. Now I wonder whether the indexers missed her name. Starting with Boston ship arrivals in the last half of 1905, I am doing an every name search to see if I can locate her. Tedious, but sometimes it works. Her name must be on a list somewhere; I do not think she stowed away!