One day in early December, I started poking around the internet to see what was available in the way of family history here. There are 2 Family History Centers but they are 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours away from Gander. I started poking around the online holdings for Memorial University and found that they may be holding more that I may be interested in than I originally thought. I managed to find the page that the ships’ logs and crew lists information is on. Unfortunately, they are not digitized. They are also not in the same location as some of the other maritime records. Memorial University has more than 1 archive for storing these records.
Upon finding the page that I need and realizing that if I was to study these records, I would have to go to St John’s and visit the archives. I found the contact information and saw that they were not open on weekends, but have excellent hours the rest of the week excluding holidays. I then called the archive and talked with one of the archivists. We had a delightful chat and I found that I would be able to use my camera to photograph the records that I am interested. At that point, I still thought that it would be spring before I would be going.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we decided to drive to St John’s, spend the night, and drive back the next day. This meant that I could visit the archives as well as doing a couple of other things. I emailed the list of ships that I knew that my great-grandfather, Richard Fielder, had sailed in. I have other ancestors to get information for as well but I thought that I would start with him. They found almost all of the crews lists the next day. They explained that the ship’s logs are normally stored with the crews lists, but all of the ones that I wanted were not there. I just hoped that I would be able to find the information that I was looking for.
We were a little late in starting out. Consequently, we did not arrive at the archives until about 1:30 pm.
When we were arrived, we were treated very well. We were shown to a table where the crews lists were waiting for me. I set up my equipment and started photographing the records. Because of being late, I decided to photograph first and examine them later. I did take a quick look at a couple and found that my great-grandmother’s brother, John Armstrong Peterson, was on a couple of these ships. I also found that the information that I was looking for would be on these records as they also include any discipline that was administered.
My husband was a great help for me. He looked after the records as I completed each set so that I could concentrate on photographing. We managed to complete the “project within a project” before they closed and actually left with time to spare.
I am looking forward to my next trip to the Maritime History Archive. I don’t anticipate this until spring because I have a couple of other trips planned.
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