Virgil Rampley appears in the “UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960.” He was a World War I soldier and was being transported to Europe with other members of his unit.

The port of departure for Virgil was listed as New York City–because that’s where they left from. He was not a New York resident.

I knew Virgil’s mother and where he lived–so that information was not a surprise to me. The manifest entries for this group of soldiers indicated a person to be notified in case of emergency, their relationship to the soldier, and the address of the contact person.

Many World War I era soldiers are included in this database, UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960. Not all are included. 

Searching these manifest records for soldiers that can’t be identified specifically from other records (maybe you’ve located too many people named William Smith) can be a way to get additional personal information on them–which may help you in sorting them out and determining which one is the one you want.  Not all the manifests have the emergency contact listed. It appears, based on my limited searches, to be included for military transports. I’ve seen other lists for about the same time period that only included names. Like any record set that covers a large time period (over eighty years in this case), this one contains records that vary from one time period to another.

Because the port of origin might not be what you expect and because many of these manifests include age, using an approximate year of birth as a search term may be advised when the name is common.

This database appears to only index the name of the passenger. That’s a shame.