7 Responses to “Can someone verify this trip by Harry Bonnell from Honolulu to S. Fr.”

1. Leslie
   January 19th, 2013 @ 10:35 am

   Not sure what you need verified. This is a passenger manifest showing a Harry Bonnel, not the same Bounel you are looking for btw, making a trip from Honolulu to San Francisco. A manifest is proof of the trip all by itself.

   The Harry Bounel born 1890 Russia that I discovered does not spell his name this way. In 1940 people were educated enough that the census records were accurate as far as spelling goes, particularly on someone’s name. By 1955, the date of this manifest, last name spellings would be accurate and this only proves that a different Harry Bonnel traveled from HI to the mainland. There were several Harry Bounel/Bonnel/Bonnells that lived in the US during the 40s and 50s. They are not all the same person.

2. blackyb
   January 20th, 2013 @ 1:07 am

   Then there is the Canadian Sam Cohens whose name was originally Kagan. It is said an immigration officer could not understand the accent of Sam and family and listed it as Cohen.

   Kagan sounds like the name on the lady on the US Supreme Court? A coincidence, perhaps.

   A different bunch altogether, most likely, but
   Anyway this old Sam live to be at least 100. Old dude, smoked and all.
   ——-

   found in Profile Sam Cohen. Not the one we want perhaps, but that name Kagan must mean another bunch must have come in to the states and got their names right by the immigration officers. Oh well.

3. blackyb
   January 20th, 2013 @ 1:12 am

   On the Bounel-bonnell thing.

   They may have spelled it as it was given, but on the otherhand even “well-educated” get in a hurry and spell wrong sometimes. Doncha recon’?

   Also maybe the name given may not have been given right in the first place?

   (I guess I take little for granted.)

4. blackyb
   January 20th, 2013 @ 1:12 am

   On the Bounel-bonnell thing.

   They may have spelled it as it was given, but on the otherhand even “well-educated” get in a hurry and spell wrong sometimes. Doncha recon’?

   Also maybe the name given may not have been given right in the first place?

   (I guess I take little for granted.)

5. Francisco
   January 20th, 2013 @ 12:39 pm

   I read that the person whose Social Security has been used by Obama by many years, that although the Social Security was issued in Connecticutt, he died in Hawaii.
   It is suspected, that Obama’s grandmother, who used to work at the social security office, or one that had access to such records when people died, did not report the death of this individual, and assigned that SS number to Obama in 1977, when he was just 15 years old, knowing that he was not a citizen of the US.

6. barbara
   January 20th, 2013 @ 3:53 pm

   Remember we didn’t have to prove who we were to fly. I think it is possible a mistake could have been made in hearing or writing his name.
   Orly is correct in pursuing any lead. She is doing a great job of connecting the dots. This just might another important link. If anyone has information, please send it to her to verify.

7. Chunk
   January 20th, 2013 @ 10:39 pm

   Leslie, I thought the same as you, until I decided to create my family tree.

   Genealogists will tell you that one of the biggest problems, in tracing your ancestry, is different spellings of surnames. The census is a huge culprit.

   The reasons are, transcribers can’t read the census takers handwriting, the person who gave the information to the CT wasn’t exactly sure of spellings or dates and estimated them, people would give their names to the CT with an accent and the CT would fail to have them elaborate on the spelling and on-the-fly name changing was common in immigrants 100 years ago.

   Also, when looking at birth, immigration or naturalization dates on a census, you can pretty much count on them to be incorrect. 100 years ago, birthdays were nothing like they are today. In many cases there was no paper evidence of birth and birthdays were a total non-event. People didn’t care if it was there birthday or not because they were so busy working and surviving.

   Genealogists say, the younger the person the chances are greater that the birth date is correct.

   Years ago, a 50 year old, may not have thought about their birthday in 2 or 3 decades, and may actually have forgotten the exact year.

   My grandmother and great-grandmother, both shared the same first name. I have not found one instance, in any census or transcription, where the name listed was correct. Plus, in every census, or transcription, there were no 2 name spellings exactly alike.

   So, it sometimes helps to keep a note of the info on “close” names, in case that person’s info pops up on something else, but with the correct spelling and same information.

   I was wondering last night how a person with a Russian or German accent would phonetically say the name “Bounel”, if speaking in english.

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