I subscribe to several genealogy newsletters and blogs. Yesterday I received Kimberly Powell's - About.com Genealogy Guide, which featured an article on the 10 Top Databases & Sites for Canadian Genealogy.
http://genealogy.about.com/od/canada/tp/top_databases.--l1.htm?nl=1 In the Canadian Genealogy Centre, I decided to look for the voyage of my grandmother Louisa Ellen Wright to Canada in 1913. From the index at
http://www.findmypast.com/ I knew that she sailed from Liverpool to Quebec, but nothing more. This was a help. The CGC has the passenger manifests, but they are digital images with no index. I knew that Grandma and Grandpa were married on July 6th, as soon as she arrived at Macklin, Saskatchewan. I found a list of ships that met the criteria, and settled on the Laurentic, which arrived at Quebec on 2nd July 1913, 2 am. The passenger manifest was nearly 60 pages long, so reading it took a while. On the 40th page, I found:
Wright Louisa 28 S.ARMY S TO BE MARRIED R. Ing,Wilhelmina, Alta. England English Montreal, Que Maid Maid Church of England CPR
http://tinyurl.com/3wj2lrBy interpretation: Louisa Wright, a single woman age 28 was travelling with the Salvation Army group, to be married to R. Ing of Wilhelmina [School District], Alberta. She was born in England and was of English nationality. She was leaving the ship at Montreal, Que [the next stop after Quebec City] Her occupation in England was Maid and her occupation in Canada was Maid. Her religious denomination was Church of England. She would be travelling west by CPR [Canadian Pacific Railway].
I was thrilled beyond words at finding this.
I knew she had looked after a little girl named Dorothy. She named my mother after her. On the passenger manifest, Louisa is listed right after this family:
Wilson Edith 25 M With page 19 line 38 England English Hamilton, Ont Wife Wife Church of England GTR [Grand Trunk Railway]
Wilson William 3 S.ARMY S England English Hamilton, Ont Child Child Church of England GTR
Wilson Fredk 18 S.ARMY S Going to aunt England English Whitby, Ont Labouring Labourer Church of England GTR
Wilson Dorothy 7 S.ARMY S England English Whitby, Ont School School Church of England GTR
So there was my mother's namesake. Prior to this I didn't know her family name.
Before finding this document I didn't know anything about the ship either. So this was a real genealogy treasure!