Glasgow to U.S. Emigration

[Ketzel]

I know that in the early years of the 20th Century, emigrants from Eastern Europe who were departing such ports as Hamburg and Bremen had to undergo U.S. health inspections and immigration inquiries before they boarded the ship. Was the same true in Glasgow? If so, where did these inspections take place?

Also, would a relative in the U.S. have sent money for the passage or the actual ticket? If the ticket, would it have been for a specific sailing?

Ketzel

[Ina]

Hi Ketzel, Not sure about the health inspection. When I came to the statea all I needed was a vaccination, and that was checked when entering the USA.

Sometimes the ships passenger lists will list who actually paid for the trip. I have a few where it states that an uncle paid for the crossing.

Ina

[Tracey]

Also, would a relative in the U.S. have sent money for the passage or the actual ticket? If the ticket, would it have been for a specific sailing?

Sometimes on the ships manifest it says who paid for the ticket.

As for the health check - silly thoughts but i always see in my head the film The Godfather with Vito Andolini (Corleone) entering Ellis Island and being looked over and hospitalised and then leaving as Vito Corleone - how easy it was to become someone else without opening your mouth ! These are two things i always remember when looking for someone emigrating to America

[SarahND]

Hi Ketzel,
I don't know about the health inspections before sailing, but I know that my mother was somehow involved in guiding new immigrants through the health inspection after they landed in New York. That would have been in the early 1940s.
Regards,
Sarah

[Ketzel]

I'm thinking of the year 1906, specifically. I know that my ancestor's son in America paid for the ticket, what I'm wondering is whether he sent the money to pay for it or the physical ticket.

Ketzel

[Ina]

I wonder how long it would have taken for a letter to get from US to Scotland in 1906, or if you would be allowed to send that much money through the mail. In 1960 I sent my mother a return ticket to come visit me in the states. I bought the return ticket in New York.

Ina

[Currie]

The speed of letter delivery across the Atlantic would have depended largely on the speed of the steamers that carried the mail. In 1907 the Lusitania held the eastbound record of just under five days from New York to Queenstown, Ireland. I guess that there were slower mail ships and there was the unloading and the rest of the journey to the letters destination etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Riband

But by 1906 there were transatlantic cables. In 1871, in the US, Western Union introduced a money transfer service by telegraph. By 1900 Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two international cables. I don’t really know but you would think there would have been something similar as a transatlantic service by then. If the fees weren’t too exorbitant maybe the money, if that’s the way it was done, could have got there a lot faster than by letter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union

The relative who sent the money would have to trust the other person enough to know that they wouldn’t spend the money on something else.

See if this article in ”Popular Science”, 1905, “How Immigrants are Inspected” answers your question regarding health inspections. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=FCQ ... 22&f=false

Hope that helps,
Alan

[Ketzel]

Thanks, Alan. That's a very good article in a general way, but my question is more specifically what would have happened to a passenger departing Glasgow in 1906. I suspect the health inspection would have been more cursory than in Bremen or Hamburg or Antwerp, where the hordes of Jewish immigrants pouring in from Eastern Europe would have been more suspect in the eyes of U.S. officials than the tidier lot from the U.K. But it would be nice to know for sure. (I'm writing a piece of fiction based on my husband's great-grandmother, who was born in Riga, lived in the Briggait in Glasgow for eleven years, and then emigrated to the U.S. in 1906.)

Thanks for your help, everyone.

Ketzel

[Montrose Budie]

Hi Ketzel

I believe that an emigrant from Scotland would have been asked certain health questions before they boarded the ship in Glasgow; not least since anyone refused entry to the USA on health grounds was sent back to their point of origin at the expense of the shipping company ! Whether or not an actual medical examination was involved, I'm not sure.

The same factor would apply in other European ports, i.e. the shipping company wanted to avoid having to pay for a return trip !

The normal procedure was for the relative in N America to buy the ticket in
N America from a shipping company, and then notify the relative in Scotland or elsewhere of this fact, so that they could visit the office of the shipping company in Glasgow or whereever, consult them regarding departure dates, and make a booking based on their relative's payment.

mb

[Ketzel]

That's very useful, thanks!

Ketzel