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John Gildawie (Gildowie) b abt 1869, Paisley Scotland to USA (or Canada) 1907 - ultimately New York City

John Gildawie (Gildowie) b abt 1869, Paisley Scotland to USA (or Canada) 1907 - ultimately New York City

Posted: 2 Jul 2014 1:51PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 2 Jul 2014 1:53PM GMT
Surnames: Gildawie, Gildowie, Black
Hello,

I have tried for quite some time to determine how my great grandfather John Gildawie emigrated from Scotland ultimately to the USA. The rest of the family - his wife Mary and the three children John (senior John's son), George, and Alexander all arrived on the Furnessia September 24, 1907 from Glasgow to New York City.

On their passenger manifest, it says that they are "disc to Husb" so I assume that means discharge to husband. The address listed there for John Gildawie is 277 Henry Street, Brooklyn, NY (there is another street address crossed off x Columbia Street.

Also listed on the manifest is Mary's father's address in Paisley (4 New Street and 45 Maxwellton Paisley). His name is John Black (although it looks like John Lark). I believe John Black emigrated to the USA in 1911.

On the 1910 US census, their year of emigration - including John senior - is 1907.

John's sisters Mary and Louise Gildawie (listed as Gildowie) arrived from Liverpool to Quebec on 22 May 1911 - they were domestics.

I've been trying all kinds of variations of name, been checking Canadian passenger lists, other US ports of entry. Nothing.

Now I have started scanning through the digitized ledger sheets of the passenger manifests for UK Outgoing passengers for 1907. I've slogged through August 1907 and March 1907 thus far (this is based on departure date from the UK, not arrival date). I thought maybe I could find something looking visually but based on the time it's taken fro me to slog through March and August, I'll be doing this a long time.

I believe that John's brother in law James Black arrived in the USA sometime around the same time and that James lived with John, Mary and the children for a time.

I was at the local library (Falmouth, MA USA) yesterday and they have some large passenger list books but I didn't see any of my Gildawies listed (or anyone else I knew for that matter) so maybe they were far earlier than my Gildawie ancestors in 1907 ish. By the way, the name is still frequently mispelled Gildowie instead of Gildawie.

Anyone have any other suggestions for how I might resolve this mystery? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance.

Janice Gildawie

Re: John Gildawie (Gildowie) b abt 1869, Paisley Scotland to USA (or Canada) 1907 - ultimately New York City

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 1:40AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Gildawie, Gildowie, Black
Hello,

I wanted to post to inform that I was able to finally track down how John Gildawie (b. 1869 d. 1949) arrived in the USA and when he did so. With some hints from a researcher at another organization, I was able to go on line and order a copy of his naturalization papers. These indicate that John arrived at New York from Liverpool England (not Glasgow Scotland) on the Carmania with arrival April 17/18 1907. This is about 5 months before his wife Mary and 3 boys arrived at New York from Glasgow.

The name is seriously misspelled in translation on both the UK passenger list (I think it was Gibalowie) and the NY passenger list (I think it was Gelkaviel on the NY list plus birth location was paeslen and s/b paisley and his age was incorrect - should be 35 and birth year was listed as 1882, not 1872 - but his actual birth year per birth certificate is 1869).

The name is also misspelled on the 1930 and 1940 US census.

John traveled with his brother in law George Hamilton Black (10 years his junior) and both were meeting John Black (John's brother in law and George's brother).

So mystery solved. So John did arrive to New York and not to Canada as I originally thought. Good thing too. Just the passenger list alone for the April 17/18 1907 was something like 940 pages long on line. And from Liverpool rather than Scotland. Too much to be searching visually through.

Janice
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