Finding the Names — Installment 60 (Roll 7: New Orleans Inward Manifests, 1836) — FREE

Finding the Names is a free series that transcribes America's slave-trade records from the National Archives' own scans, name by name, so descendants can find their families. Every installment is free — please share it.

Installment 60 — Roll 7, images 1,081–1,200 transcribed name by name by hand: 479 more entries (473 named, 6 unnamed) on 59 documents, 120 pages. The series now holds 39,766 transcribed entries.

Two men who stand in no table get their rows here, and the book says why. Dick of the schooner Tantivy — whose examiner wrote "Manifest Mislaid" back at image 1062 — is entered from his Savannah bill of lading and from Captain Dunham's sworn notarial act at New Orleans: he "has mislaid or lost the manifest for a negro named Dick," and the margin records Dick "on board & found correct 7th April 1836." And Robert, about 17, 5 ft 6 in, was found on board the brig America from Mobile though he stands in none of her papers: Inspector Drew's exception — "one more slave not specified" — is the only record of him, and it is printed in full.

The brig Chapman's arrival went wrong in a way the papers preserve: of her 24 people, the inspector passed only Jim, 30. A sworn City Court affidavit explains that John Randall, the owner's son-in-law, took all the others off the vessel while her master was in the Custom House entering the cargo. The brig Louisiana's permission recites "Ninety two Persons" and her clerk numbered to 92, but her sheets carry 96 rows — three whole entries between Nos. 51 and 52 are scribbled out beyond reading. Jane of the brig Arabian never travelled: "Jane not on board," "not shipped." And John of the ship Arkansas stands in his manifest at "8 feet" tall — the New Orleans inspector endorsed his sheet "found Correct Excepting in Height." (That endorsement was read and verified against the original scan.)

Small things, kept as written: Deborah's child, born on the brig Two Sisters' passage and recorded only in the Balize endorsement; Hannay, first endorsed "not seen," then brought to the Surveyor's Office the same day and found to answer her description; Mary of the ship Havre, whose certificate authorises "One" slave though she travels with her infant child; Monarchy Johnson on the brig Tribune; Chany of the brig Tweed, classed "Grief" as written; and the Tweed's own sixteen, shipped with the family's household goods — "1 table & bedding, 1 table, 1 clock, 1 stand, 4 Barrels Fish."

Includes a searchable CSV name list of all 479 entries (name, vessel, age, shipper, and more). Honest about gaps: illegible and conflicting entries are flagged, never silently fixed.

With Installments 1–60 the series now holds 39,766 transcribed entries. Start with the free guide, "Finding the Names," and the free Complete Set, which gathers everything so far in one download.

— Okey and Susan Barker, Trails End