Marcus WA immigration records 1904

[mfwebb]

I know there are many people on this forum who have had great success in tracing overseas ancestors, but I have only just made my first foray overseas whilst helping my wife with her research after 25 years or more concentrating on my own.

One of the legends in her family is that “Uncle Herbert disappeared and no-one knew where he went until a postcard was received showing him standing on a pile of logs in Canada”. Thus it was said he ran away to be a logger in Canada but, apart from that one postcard, nothing else was known or heard of him. Herbert’s brother Arthur Pickering was my wife’s grandfather and she recently set me the task of finding her great uncle Herbert Pickering in Canada.

Knowing that he was born in Leeds in 1882 and having located him in 1891 and 1901 in the UK but not in 1911, the trail was remarkably easy to follow once I had established that the only viable Herbert Pickering in the 1911 Canadian census was not our Herbert and that this Herbert’s passage to Canada, therefore, wasn’t him either.

I won’t bore you with all the details although I am excited by what I’ve found, and how easy it was to locate information in the USA once I'd got the right man, but I am asking for some advice and/or information.

I have copies of all the records proving I have found the correct Herbert Pickering tracing his sailing from Liverpool, landing at St John New Brunswick on 18 April 1904 up to his death in 1955 in Seattle. I am waiting to receive a copy of his death certificate from King County Archives to see if I can get any further information from that.

The only piece of hard evidence I have not been able to find is written evidence of his entry into the United States via Canada and railroad through Marcus, Washington which he declared as his lawful port of entry in both his Declaration of Intent to apply for US citizenship and his Petition for Naturalisation.
Records of immigration from Canada via Marcus appear to start in 1923. That is the earliest date of on-line records and I have not been able to find any indication that records exist prior to this date.

Has anyone else had ancestors who travelled into the US from Canada via Marcus, Washington prior to 1923 and have you any knowledge of the whereabouts of the earlier records?

Many thanks
Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK

[Nicolina]

I found my Grandmother's cousin crossing from Canada to the US but, unfortunately, I cannot find the website now. It is out there somewhere, so I'll keep looking. Have you found Herbert on the 1911 Canadian Census?

[mfwebb]

Thanks Nicolina.

Herbert Pickering landed in Canada in April 1904 but by May 1904 he had crossed the border by train into the USA where he remained until he died in 1955. He is NOT in the 1911 Canadian census but I have not been able to find him in the 1910 Federal USA Census either. In all official paperwork Herbert declares to have entered the USA via Marcus Washington on 5 May 1904 and to have been a permanent resident in the USA since that date.

Many thanks,

Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK