{"id":18175,"date":"2016-11-30T11:11:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T16:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=18175"},"modified":"2017-01-26T16:10:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:10:15","slug":"this-is-what-my-ancestor-a-ship-captain-saw-in-1769","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/this-is-what-my-ancestor-a-ship-captain-saw-in-1769.html","title":{"rendered":"This Is What My Ancestor, a Ship Captain, Saw in 1769!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this 1769 newspaper article about my 5th great-grandfather James Garcelon (1739-1813). He was a ship captain.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank.com, Essex Gazette (Salem, Massachusetts), 2 May 1769, page 161<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It documents that he was the captain of the schooner Alexander<\/em> that had cleared the port of Salem, Massachusetts, on 1 May 1769 headed for Bilbao, Spain.<\/p>\n

Wow. That\u2019s incredible. I knew he was a ship captain \u2013 now I can look back in history and see when and where he went in the 1760s!<\/p>\n

I used GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> to document the ships he captained and their voyages to and from Europe and the Caribbean. Here is how I did it.<\/p>\n

I searched for him using GenealogyBank\u2019s Passenger Lists<\/a> search page for old shipping records. GenealogyBank has these from 1704 to 1984.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These shipping list articles often print the name of the ship captain in abbreviated forms. I have found that the best search is to use only his surname: Garcelon.<\/p>\n

In the 1769 newspaper article his name was given as \u201cJ. Garcelon,\u201d but I have also seen it printed as:<\/p>\n