Ancestry Adds Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981

This collection, claiming  289,555 records, just appeared. For now, here’s the description provided by Ancestry.

Voyage reports, business operation registers, and telegraphs have been combined into a single collection that can show a passenger’s destination, activities on the ship, and even accidents or illnesses that may have occurred. Colourful photographs and brochures showcase the ship’s design and the layout of individual rooms.

Documents and photographs of each ship’s crew are included, along with information on military personnel who sometimes travelled by steamship. This collection also documents the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company’s involvement in historical events such as World War I, World War II, and the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 in Japan. This collection has a wide variety of records spanning over a hundred years, so information on passengers and crew may vary.

Using this collection

If your ancestor travelled on a Canadian Pacific Steamship, you might discover the following information about them in this collection:

Date and place of birth
Occupation
Place of residence
Name of vessel
Date and place of departure
Date and place of arrival
Name of next of kin
To provide optimal service, the crew sometimes made notes about a passenger’s occupation, societal status, family, and purpose of travel. These notes can act as a short biographical sketch of your ancestor. Military personnel occasionally travelled on steamships, and their rank, company, and regiment may also be discovered.

If your ancestor worked on a steamship, this collection may tell you their occupation (or rating), date of employment, birth date, or place of usual residence. You may also find an employment history which summarizes your ancestor’s time with the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company.

The collection includes information on the voyage that brought me to Canada. Unfortunately, there’s no passenger list, but lots of detail on the journey, even down to information on passengers who needed medical attention.

Look for further posts on the treasures in this collection.