What if she DID give birth at sea?
Long shot, certainly, but I have found Fred Nerks’ posts on the “African Colonial” thread fascinating, including his mentions of the Black Star Line and shipping to and from Ghana.
Were they strictly freighters, or was there passenger service? Would there be 1961 passenger — or even birth or marriage — records of voyages on those ships?
Mombasa has a deep harbor. Did the Black Star Line operate there?
Ann Dunham traveled, and the easiest and fastest way is by air. However, it’s also the most expensive. I keep wondering how this teenager, the daughter of parents of moderate means, supposed wife to a well-connected student with no particular means of support, found the money to fly all over the world.
It would certainly be interesting to see if she appears on any incoming or outgoing passenger manifest anytime in 1961.
Again, a very long shot, but this is one weird story.
I quote a story of a young traveller taking a berth on a cargo ship of The Black Star Line, the AFRAM RIVER, on ‘one of her maiden voyages’ out of a US mainland port on The Great Lakes, on that thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278969/posts
And another, where the brother of Malcolm X was interviewed after meeting a ship of the Black Star Line; saying how proud he felt...because his parents were ‘Garveyites’ - and the Black Star Line, orginally established by Marcus Garvey, re-established by Nukrumah shortly after Ghana independance, had a special place in the hearts of all Pan-African supporting African-Americans.
The Black Star Line indeed offered passenger berths on some of its 14 cargo ships that travelled to ports around the world.
Records? The Line was Israeli registered. But from 196l? I doubt it. There are several Freepers looking...we could use some help.
Your thinking in parallel lines to most of us....Any idea where to get the ship manifests? I’m thinking there may be some type of “spice boat”. Any idea of which companies bought “clove” from Momsabic? Did they have their own ships?
My computer is slow (dial up) so it difficult to do the big searches.
Not sure about the rules on that.
What is the country of birth if it takes place on the “open” ocean (i.e, outside the 12-mile limit)?
Is it based upon ship registry, destination, departure, closest country at time of birth, based upon parent(s) citizenship, etc?