Does anyone know if the ship passenger lists are available to view from the Dansk Data Archive?

Question

My great grandfather Frederik William Meilstrup (name used on record) emigrated from Denmark to the US in 1881 on the ship Thingvalla. I can see this in the Danish Archives as an index,(https://ddd.dda.dk/udvandrer/udvandr_soeg.asp?navn=Meilstrup&stilling=&alder=&sidste_oph_sted=&s_sogn=&s_oph_amt=&best_by=&best_stat=&best_land=&kontraktens_nr=&aar=&maaned=) but am unsure if there is a way to actually see the passenger list. He was only 3 years old and not travelling with his parents. I am trying to find out who he was travelling with. My Danish is extremely limited so negotiating the website can be rather daunting. If I can't see the originals (which is what I am guessing) does anyone have an idea as to how to find who he was travelling with?

Navn:	Meilstrup, Fr. Wm.	Stilling:	Barn
Alder:	03 1/2	Bestemmelsessted:	N.Y.
Kontrakt nr.:	500	Forevisningsdato:	1/7/1891
Fødested:	?	Fødesogn:	?
Sidste oph.sogn:	København	Sidste oph. amt:	København
Sidste oph.sted:	Kjbhvn.	Bestemmelses land:	USA
Bestemmelses by:	New York City	Bestemmelses stat:	New York State
Skibsnavn:	Thingvalla
IDkode:	D8991M1603

Comments

Could there be a way to at least search for everyone who was on that particular voyage?

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I hav managed to make my own list of everyone on the ship, but don't know how to find who was travelling together.

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I've looked for the actual images before and never was able to find them anywhere.  In the Danish family that I tracked, the ID Codes were in numerical order starting with the father.  Since you've made a list of everyone on the ship, you might want to look for people with adjacent IDkode numbers to William.

Edit: Looking at the IDkode a little more, if he was traveling with someone not named Meilstrup, the codes might not be exactly sequential as the M in D8991M1603 is for the surname.  However, the last four digits stand for page 16, line 3, so I'd think the person/persons he was traveling with would be on the same page.  

Edit:  Nope.  The pages are by the first letter of the surname, so an IDkode with M will only have people whose surname begins with M.

Edit:  After further review, families with different surnames may be kept together on the same page.  For example, Lars Rasmussen's adult children all have the last name Larsen, but they are listed on the same page with him and indexed under IDkode "R":  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C332-87DM-G

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Family members often go on the same contract no. - (Kontrakt nr.) but may not be the case here.

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Thank you Kerry for all of the effort you have put into looking at this. I also discovered that the last four digits of the code stands for the page and line number of the alphabetical index rather that the original passenger list, so the code doesn't work to find groupings of passengers. And, as he wasn't travelling with immediate family members he wasn't grouped with anyone in the index.

Thank you Hanne for so much help with this person, from translating and reading difficult handwriting to this. I have looked at the Kontrakt nr as well and my gr grandfather seems to be the only one with this contract number. I will look at the passengers with numbers before him and after to see if there is a connection there.

There is a possibility he was travelling completely alone, as there is a family story to this effect, although none of us had believed it possible.

Answer 1

Thanks for asking the question as it finally prompted me to track down the original records.  There's a FamilySearch Wiki page on Denmark Emigration and Immigration, but it doesn't provide a link to the original records, just says they've been filmed:  https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Denmark_Emigration_and_Immigration.  In any case, I tracked down the page for Wm. at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C33G-59B2-K?i=486&cat=451996.  Unfortunately, as noted in my earlier comment, because the entries are separated by surname, it doesn't appear that his traveling companions are on the same page.

Answer 2

I know this is an old post, but I only just saw it.

The Danish National Archives have begun digitizing the original registers. Beware that the indexed data does not come from passenger lists, but from registers kept by the Copenhagen Police.

I wrote a guide last year that can hopefully help you figure out whether the register relevant to your research is online: www.genealogistkottal.com/danish-genealogy-blog/new-image-collection-copenhagen-police-emigrant-registers/

I have also written a blog post about how to find images of passenger lists, but unfortunately not all lists are extant: https://www.genealogistkottal.com/danish-genealogy-blog/find-emigrant-ancestors-copenhagen-denmark-passenger-lists/

Comments

Thank you Lena! I will look into this further.