Daily AncestorContract ticket number
A contract ticket number is a steamship company's booking number for a passenger, sometimes written in the left margin of a passenger list.
The lines used it to match the passenger list with their own sales records. It has no link to any U.S. government file, so it cannot be used to request records.
It can still help: the same number may appear on a British outbound list, or a ticket or contract number on a Canadian list, letting you trace the departure side of the journey. Some American Line lists from England in the 1890s have a printed contract ticket column.
As seen in a recordLeft margin of an 1896 passenger list from England
Contract ticket 47815
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Contract ticket number." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/contract-ticket. Last checked 2026-10-03.