My Grandfather, Alexander Erman, was born in Reval, Estonia around 1889. Today Reval is called "Tallinn", and is the capital of Estonia. He immigrated to America as a crewmember on a merchant ship in January, 1918, arriving in the Port of Philadelphia. He obtained an "Able Body Seaman" Certificate from the Department of Commerace Office in philadelphia on January 18, and began a four-year Merchant Seaman Career on US-flagged ships. He maried my Grandmother Vanna Davis in Baltimore MD in 1922, ending his seagoing career, and by 1930 he was living in Philadelphia with Vanna and his children Olga and Reginald. He died in 1938 in Philadelphia. He was never Naturalized, but did apply for citizenship while a crewmember on the "Santa Cecilia" operating out of the Port of New York. He registered for the WWI Military Draft as an Alien on January 14, 1918, apparently hoping to reduce the citizenship waiting period from five to one year if he was called up. He appears on the 1930 Census. I am trying to determine the date and ship he arrived on in Philadelphia in January 1918. While there are ample ship arrival crew and passenger immigration records of his various arrivals on ships in New York from later in 1918 through 1921, the same records for Baltimore and Philadelphia online in Ancestry contain only one name for each ship arrival in those two ports. has anyone else run into this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks! Reg