Finding the Names, Volume One, Installment 2: New Orleans Inward Manifests, 1819 (Continued)

By Okey and Susan Barker. FREE — please share.

Installment 2 of a name-by-name transcription of the slave ship manifests filed at the port of New Orleans, made by hand from the original records at the National Archives (Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36, Microfilm M1895, Roll 1, images 130–249). 205 pages, 6x9, large print.

Inside: 760 people on 50 manifests — the inward voyages of 1819, from Norfolk, Baltimore, Petersburg, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and Wilmington, N.C. Each entry gives the person's name exactly as the clerk wrote it, with sex, age, height, the record's own class column, shipper/owner and residence, plus ship, master, ports, and date — and a full index of names tied to the Archives scan numbers.

These papers tell hard stories. The sloop Altezeera wrecked on Abaco: of her 47 people, the collector's tally records 19 drowned, 4 taken at Mobile, 24 brought to New Orleans — all 47 are transcribed here. The brig Calypso's list names 148, though the inspector certified 151 aboard. A child was born on the brig Angelina's passage. An 11-year-old boy, Charles, is recorded on the Laura Townes landing certificate as 'not been claimed.' The installment also carries an illustrated section, 'Art From Their Own Hands' — five works by enslaved and born-enslaved artists (Harriet Powers, David Drake, Prince Demah, Scipio Moorhead, Joshua Johnson), each verified free to share and credited.

With Installment 1, the project now holds 1,056 people. The whole New Orleans series holds roughly 114,000 name entries, and more installments will follow, voyage by voyage — all free. The companion guide and the growing Complete Set (everything in one download) are also free in this store.

If your family came through New Orleans, this is a place to look. Please share this freely — that is what it is for.