It’s been a while since I’ve shared a new GeneaGem, but I’ve found one!

Anne Stevens spent many hours (days, weeks, months?) compiling links to passenger lists for ships that arrived in the American colonies between 1602 and 1638.

The result is Pilgrim Ship Lists by Date.

If you have early colonial ancestors – not just in New England, but also the Middle Atlantic states and Virginia, you’ll want to check out this website.

Anne states that there are over 290 ships with details about 7100 families!

I don’t know about you, but I frequently look to passenger lists as I search for new information about my immigrant ancestors during the Great Migration.

She has done a terrific job compiling all this information, saving researchers many hours of hunting on their own. it is especially helpful to be able to search by both the ship name AND passengers’ names.

There is just one caveat – buyer beware! This is not a criticism of Anne at all, but there are passenger “lists” easily found online that are NOT original extant lists, created at the time of the event.

One such list is that of the 1637 Hector. A couple of different versions of the passengers on that ship can be found online. However, and this is a huge however, there was NO passenger list for this sailing until Isabel Calder published her 1934 work, The New Haven Colony. Yes, the year IS correct – 1934!

I don’t think there were many people around in 1934 who could verify which immigrants were on that particular ship.

My suggestion is to do your own research. Check other resources and repositories (AmericanAncestors, for example, for New England arrivals) to doublecheck the accuracy and providence of that ship passenger list.

However, Anne Stevens’ work is a GeneaGem that can point in the right direction.