Can't find mid-1800 immigrants from Yorkshire to Penn.
I've been doing genealogical research for several years with considerable success, but have never previously done much with immigration records, preferring to limit my inquiries to "this side of the pond," as the British say, until I had exhausted those resources.
However, I'm fairly stumped by an inability to find anything on one family where the immigration records would be quite helpful. I've searched all the databases available through Ancestry.com (which are normally quite good, in my opinion) and come up empty for these guys. I'd welcome any suggestions.
The known family members believed to have immigrated include John Burtop (Sr.), John Burtop (Jr.), Allen Burtop (son of John Jr.) and possibly a Joseph and John (III). There were likely others, but these are the names I have. Based on family records and the U.S. Census, they all ended up in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania within a short time period. I don't know exact ages, but Allen was born in England between 1830 and 1835. The passage (or passages) seem to have taken place between 1851 and 1860, though I can't rule out the possibility they were in the U.S. (or even Canada) a bit earlier and just didn't show up in the records.
A glance at British records doesn't show any clear matches, though there is a birth for an "Allin Burtop" recorded for Huddersfield, West Riding, Yorkshire in 1851. That would seem to be too late, but is likely a relative. There are substantial numbers of Burtops in West Riding throughout the 1800s, and there don't seem to be many Burtops anywhere else (except Jefferson Co., Pa.).
I'm surprised that I can't find any record of this family as passengers, particularly since they were from England, which I always assumed kept fine records. I don't know what port they sailed from, though presumably somewhere in northeastern England. Where they landed is also a mystery, though Phildelphia, New York and Baltimore all seem like reasonable possibilities. As they settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes are also a possible landing or crossing point.
Advice or information welcome.
More Replies:
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Re: Can't find mid-1800 immigrants from Yorkshire to Penn.
Linda Lew 9/20/06
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Re: Can't find mid-1800 immigrants from Yorkshire to Penn.
FD Taylor 9/21/06
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Re: Can't find mid-1800 immigrants from Yorkshire to Penn.
Linda Lew 9/22/06
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Re: Can't find mid-1800 immigrants from Yorkshire to Penn.
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Re: Can't find mid-1800 immigrants from Yorkshire to Penn.