Posted by Jim Koch on November 08, 19102 at 12:57:35:
In Reply to: Fritz family lost on Great Lakes 1844? posted by Jann Wojcik on November 07, 19102 at 07:47:16:
There is no comprehensive passenger list of which I am aware. However, the newspapers of the time would interview survivors of such wrecks (if there were survivors) and publish their stories. The papers also published passenger lists when available.
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So the best way for you to proceed is to look at all of the wrecks which occurred in the years of 1844 and 1845. Follow the link to the left titled ONLINE MARINE HISTORY & SHIPWRECK DATABASES to David Swayze's site. There you can do a search on the years 1844 and 1845. You will then have a list of all known shipwrecks on the lake in that time span. Eliminate the vessels which were heading East (downbound) and any wrecks which did not involve a great loss of life. Then do a library search in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, or Buffalo on each of the vessels remaining.
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Libraries keep copies of old newspapers on microfilm. It's a real pain in the eyeball reviewing hundreds of pages of partially decayed and badly photographed newsprint, but the information is there. If you come up with a list of vessels which went down in Lake Erie or Huron, e-mail me. I periodically do searches on Lake Erie wrecks downtown at the Cleveland Public Library and can peruse the vessels which interest you while I am there.