This may seem obvious, but based upon my emails, messages I get in a variety of places, and comments I see to various postings, a reminder would not hurt.

Read the entire question, document, etc. when analyzing it, asking questions about it, answering questions about it, etc. Genealogy is about details. Skimming leads to missed references that often are key to further research.

And maybe as a suggestion after reading the entire thing: let any new conclusion based on a single document sit for a few minutes before follow up work starts. Consider reading the document again.

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  1. I was advised by the French departmental archive in Rouen, which has passenger lists for LeHavre, to search for my wife’s ancestral ship, supposedly the “Eugenius,” in 1819, in the French military archives in Brest. It did make much sense to me, looking for a passenger list of a ship that went from Antwerp to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in a military archive but I sent for it anyway. The military archive sent a crew list of a ship called the “Eugenie.” I thought my search was fruitless. A military crew list instead of a passenger list. Luckily, I read on. Following a detailed list of the military crew, there was a list of the passengers, with surname, given name, place of origin, age, occupation. The warship had been refitted for passenger trade. And this is before the beginning of the U.S. passenger arrival lists in 1820. Read on!

    This is the passethe pnger list for Jacob Tüscher’s group of Swiss who came to Belmont and Monroe Counties in 1819. Jacob Tüscher/Tisher is my wife Barbara’s ancestor. I had tried to find a passenger list for 48 years, and the US federal passenger lists don’t begin until 1820. But the ship was a French one, and the archives in Rouen told me to try the naval military archives at Brest. I thought it would be fruitless to try to find a civilian passenger list in military archives, but I followed up anyway and here it is!

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