[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Passports or Identity Papers

[Paul Rakow]

  Virginia, 

      Since you said that the year was 1903, not 1902, the ship
 "Bataviga" in the naturalisation papers must be the Batavia, 
 sailed 25 May 1903 from Hamburg, arrived 8 June 1903 in NY. 

     If you can't find Friedrich in the ancestry index, try looking
 through the Batavia's passenger list page by page, and see if you 
 can spot him - the indexer might have misread the name. 

     You can also try the Hamburg passenger lists. If you need to
 use the index that can be a bit complicated, but since you know 
 ship and date it's easy. Just order the *direct* Hamburg passenger
 list that covers May 1903, from the LDS, and look for the Batavia. 

     In the 19th century the Hamburg lists are usually much better 
 than the USA lists, because they always give a precise village for 
 the last residence, while the US lists often just give a country or
 province. By the 20th century the American lists had caught up, both
 give similar information. 
 

        Good Luck! 

           Paul Rakow 
           rakow at ifh.de 

 GVLESS at aol.com wrote: 
> 
> Freidrich Less' naturalization papers provide this info:  Dated 3  April 
> 1909, Alpena, Michigan:
> .....imigrated to the U.S. from Hamburg, Germany on or about 25 day of May  
> 1902 and arrived at port of New York in the United States on the vessel  
> Bataviga....."  With the naturalization papers being filled out 6 years  after Less 
> arrived here he may have forgotten some of the facts he supplied for  this 
> paper.  The ship itself I have not been able to find one with this  name at least 
> in the Ellis Island records.  I have checked Ancestry this  week on their 
> free opportunity and they said there was no records for this  Freidrich Less, age 
> 19, arriving in 1903.  So - where do I go from  here?
>  

 [snip] 

>  
> Thanks for all of you trying to help me on this.  If anyone has any  ideas 
> what to do next in this research let me know.  What about going to  the Hamburg 
> records?  Does anyone have any success from those?  
>  
> Virginia Less
>