Cornelius Van Stavern … is the eighth name from bottom of photocopy page the left side of original signatures on the manifest of the ship Lydia (dated Oct 9, 1749).  You can also link to http://www.progenealogists.com/palproject/pa/1749lydia.htm

 During these years there were rarely any records kept of departing passengers and only few records of those arriving here. No ship passenger lists were available until much later on in the century. Many records of the early arrivals of 1700 and later, only occurred if there was a problem.  So we are lucky to have a record of the Lydia.  Notice that only heads of families are listed, so Corneilus's wife and any children were not recorded.

Everyone that arrived on this continent from overseas, had to come by ship. From the early ships to the majestic sailing ships of the mid 1800's, everyone had to endure 5 to six weeks on-board a sailing ship. These ships were not large and were primarily designed to fight wars or to transport goods from one place to another. Most of the paintings of ships are of war ships and a few are of commercial ships.  You are likely not to find a passenger ship, probably because there weren't any.  When the migrations from Europe started in the 1700s, vessels of all kinds were pressed into service for carrying passengers. Often times, 300 people were packed into a ship and assigned tiny cots lined up side by side to make maximum use of space. Extra floors were often installed so that more cots and hammocks could be setup to handle more people. The head room that resulted was barely enough to allow one to creep in a stooped position to an assigned cot. Men, women and children were all crammed together. Exercise room was very limited. Food was eaten "in place" with no dining rooms available. Food after the first week was moldy and sour. Water became foul and undrinkable. Disease was all too often present with disastrous results. Death at sea was a common occurrence - as was child-birth. People dying at sea where just thrown overboard because there was no way to preserve bodies long enough to reach shore. When considering a sea journey they had to look beyond just the comfort aspects of the trip - there was a very real chance that they would not arrive at all.  Storms were an all too often occurrence as there was no way to predict the weather. Ships were often blown off course to arrive weeks late and to be forced into ports far from their original destination. Pirates were very common, operating without hindrance off the American coast during the first half of the  1700's.

The ship pictured on this page is typical of sailing ships used during the 1700's. Their external beauty hides the harshness of their interiors. While there were minor changes in the design of hulls, the interiors of sailing ships remained essentially unchanged over the years from 1492 until the mid 1800's.