The Stowaway

Karl Kowallis arrived in NYC from Germany in 1893. Over 100 years later, in 1995, his daughter told the story of Karl being a stowaway. Her story was documented as follows: “Lacking sufficient money for passage, Karl managed to board the ship and stow away undetected. After some time at sea, either a crew member apprehended him, or he turned himself in to the captain. Whichever reason it was, the captain gave Karl the opportunity to work off his fare doing work on board ship.”1

The Inspection of Aliens

The Immigration Act of 1891 stated that all aliens were to be inspected either on board or temporarily removed for inspection.2

The general practice at Ellis Island only brought steerage passengers, or third class passengers, to the island for inspection. Cabin Passengers also had to be inspected, but they were generally inspected on board and allowed to enter the United States with less scrutiny. The assumption was made that if someone could afford a cabin ticket they would not rely on the government for support.3

Categories for exclusion from admission into the United States, other than Chinese laborers or excluded ethnicities (that’s a whole different story), were:

  • idiots
  • insane persons
  • paupers or persons likely to become a public charge
  • persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease
  • persons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude
  • polygamists
  • any person whose ticket was purchased or paid by those intending to employ the passenger as a contract laborer4

Marking up the Manifests

For the most part, Ellis Island did not create new records except for those detained. However, all aliens had to be inspected. The ship manifests provided by the shipping company were used to process immigrants. The manifests included passengers’ answers to various questions, as required by different immigration and passenger acts.5

Immigration workers made annotations on the manifests as they processed passengers. Some annotations clarified relationships, such as writing “wife” or “child” next to a name. Other annotations and checkmarks were made on the manifest as deemed necessary by the Ellis Island Employees. As the years progressed and the questions increased, additional information was obtained. One question asked was if they were in possession of $50. The ship manifest merely had a yes or a no. Sometimes annotations would be made listing the dollar amount, primarily for those who had less than $50.

An “X” at the beginning of the entry meant they were detained for further investigation. Some went before a board of special inquiry to determine if they would be allowed to enter the United States.

At least by 1901, passengers identified for further inquiry were documented on one of two forms filled out by Ellis Island Employees.6 One form was entitled “Record of Detained Alien Passengers” and the other “Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry.” These records are located at the end of the ship manifest. (If the person in question has an “X” next to their name, it is definitely worth investigating and looking for the additional forms.)

Several databases include the ship manifests. Family Search and the Ellis Island-Statue of Liberty Foundation have records available after signing into a free account. The ship manifests are indexed in these databases, but not the detainment and special inquiry forms. However, these additional forms can be viewed by browsing the image set and locating them after the ship manifests. Ancestry.com, a subscription website, has Ellis Island records, and on their site the detainment and special inquiry records are indexed as well as the manifests.

While the database is often referred to as The Ellis Island database, or Ellis Island records, the records include passengers who were not processed on the Island. The records include those who were 1st Cabin (also called Saloon passengers), 2nd Cabin, as well as steerage. Only steerage passengers were processed on Ellis Island, with a few exceptions. Looking at the entire record can help determine if an individual was processed on Ellis Island. The pages are generally labeled with the class of the passenger. However, I have seen some records that split the manifest into different classes and you have to refer to the beginning of the section to identify the class of a particular passenger. Additionally, the database also includes records from before Ellis Island opened and for the time period when Ellis Island was temporarily closed due to a fire in 1897 and immigrants were processed elsewhere.

The Records for Karl Kowallis, the Stowaway

Ellis Island opened in 1892, just one year prior to Karl’s arrival. In the 1897 fire, several buildings at Ellis Island burned down, destroying many of the records at Ellis Island. Unfortunately, this means the records used to process the newly arrived immigrants were lost.7 Since the ship manifest for the ship Karl arrived on has not been located, it is reasonable to assume those pages were destroyed in the fire. However, not all was lost.

The Passenger Act of 1882 required a duplicate copy of the manifest to be given to the Collector of Customs.8 These records were stored in the Customs office, sparing them from the Ellis Island fire.9

The Customs List below shows that Karl Kowallis, age 19, was a 2nd Cabin Passenger.10

A supposed stowaway on the 2nd Cabin passenger list?

An 1891 Act of Congress required that any passenger who was deported was to be returned to their port of origin at the shipping company’s expense.11 One reason for deportation was someone likely to become a public charge.12 Assuming the story of Karl being a stowaway is true, the shipping company likely knew that Karl was a candidate for deportation and didn’t want to foot the bill for his return. As previously mentioned, a 2nd Cabin Passenger would receive less scrutiny than a steerage passenger. It is also possible that steerage was at capacity (there were fines for violating capacity) and a 2nd cabin spot was the next best option.

This is just speculation of why Karl was on the 2nd cabin passenger list. Anyone who knew what really happened has long since passed, but understanding the law can help paint a picture of what happened. Lineage Tracers are left to unravel the details the best we can. :-)

  1. Story is in family possession. ↩

  2. Fifty-First United States Congress, Session 2, Chapter 551, Section 8; digital image https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/26/STATUTE-26-Pg1084a.pdf: accessed 23 April 2022). ↩

  3. “Overview + History: Ellis Island”, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (www.statueofliberty.org: accessed 23 April 2022). ↩

  4. Fifty-First United States Congress, Session 2, Chapter 551, Section 1. ↩

  5. The form questions evolved as different Acts of Congress were passed. ↩

  6. I have not seen detainment or Special Inquiry forms before 1901, but I’m still researching to confirm if this is a starting date for them. Ellis Island reopened after the fire in December 1900 and it is possible they started using the forms when they reopened. ↩

  7. “The Ellis Island Blaze”, New-York Tribune (New York, NY) 16 June 1897, page 7, column 2; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.newspapers.com: accessed 24 April 2022). “One of the serious losses to the Immigration Bureau was that of many of the records which contained the history of the immigrants who have landed here for several years back.” Also, “Overview + History: Ellis Island”, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. Also, “Ellis Island All A Ruin”, The Sun (New York, NY), 16 June 1897, page 3; digital image Ancestry.com (www.newspapers.com: accessed 24 April 2022). “Aside from the money and these tickets the most valuable things on the island were the records of the Department of Emigration going back to 1840 . . . They were nearly all of them stored in a brick house . . . From half to two-thirds of these records were destroyed.” ↩

  8. The Forty-Seventh United States Congress, Session 1, Chapter 374; digital image, https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/22/STATUTE-22-Pg186.pdf: accessed 24 April 2022). ↩

  9. “Overview”, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. ↩

  10. “Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820-1897,” Passenger Lists 19 Oct 1893-14 Nov 1893; online database, Family Search (www.familysearch.org: accessed 14 April 2022); citing NARA Series M237, Roll 620. ↩

  11. The Fifty-First United States Congress, Session 2, Chapter 551, Section 10; digital image, https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/26/STATUTE-26-Pg1084a.pdf: accessed 24 April 2022). ↩

  12. Ibid, Section 1. ↩

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