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Immigration Links Click here for Emigration page > Emigration
'The Great Hall' at Ellis Island as it looks like today.
The 1903 Project Passenger Lists: Free download of all the lists Download this file once a week, as it does change. Unzip them to a subdirectory and click on your desktop, press F3 to search the subdirectory you placed the ship files in for your ancestors surname. For a powerful search program that can search an unopened zip file, download the program Examine from Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana - an excellent source for Canadian and Ellis Island Passenger lists as well as other material.
Catalogs of Microfilm Publications - Pricing policy - Microfilm specifications and more Changing Immigrant Names - Cimorelli's Emigration and Immigration FAQs Enumeration Districts "Enumeration District Maps for the 12th through 16th Censuses of the U.S. 1900-1940". Family History Library (FHL) Catalog - has a cross reference table to find information on ship traveling between Europe, Canada and the U.S. Generally, catalog entries are written in the same language as the original record they describe. You can order microfilms through your nearest Family History Center. You can also use the microfilms, books and other items at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. FEEFHS - Federation of East European Family History Societies - using Federal Census and Federal Homestead records to obtain naturalization records Finding Immigration records - Freedom of Information Form - you can request a form G639 by calling the INS at 1 800 870 3676. If you need further help, call the INS help line at 1 800 375 5283. Press 1 for the English option, then wait through the first set of six options and press 9 to talk to an agent. Glasgow, Scotland - many East European immigrants departed from Glasgow, Scotland. The records of departures by ship for the US, Canada, etc. are held in the Public records Office (PRO), Kew, London. From a posting by Harvey Kaplan HAPAG - "At the dock" for passengers on any HAPAG ships was not on Manhattan, but in Weehawken, N.J. When a ship entered New York, it first had to anchor in a designated quarantine area off Clinton Point, Staten Island. That day, special ferry boats, run by the Immigration Service, off-loaded all of the 3rd class passengers bound for Ellis Island, unless it was during the period of June 14, 1897 to December 16, 1900, when a burned out Ellis Island was being rebuilt. During this period, they went to the "Barge Office" - a part of the Old Customs House on The Battery (located in lower Manhattan) that was used by the service before Ellis Island was opened on January 1, 1892. Generally speaking, the first and second class passengers bound for Manhattan were off-loaded onto a HAPAG ferry boat that took them to Manhattan. All aliens were taken to Ellis Island for processing before anyone was allowed to meet them. Citizens of the U.S. were released at the dock and could go on their merry way. If immigrants were traveling to destinations that were a great distance from Ellis Island (e.g. to Chicago, etc.) the alien had to have a paid ticket to get there and the immigration officers check the ticket. All aliens had to prove that they had a 'sponsor' at the 'stated' destination. Immigration officers did verify the truthfulness of this information. Sponsors were not required to travel to New York to meet immigrants after they were approved and released by the immigration officer. If the immigration inspector had any doubt about he disposition of an immigrant to a sponsor, they would release the immigrant to an immigrant aid society. HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) - the oldest international migration and refugee resettlement agency in the U.S. It was founded by a group of Russian Jews, recent arrivals themselves. HIAS representatives served as mediators and interpreters for the immigrants, found them housing and fed them until relatives or friends showed up, searched for relatives and friends who didn't show up, and put in all-nighters scouring the late editions of newspapers for jobs. There are microfilm records for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society's Philadelphia immigrant records, from 1884 to 1952, LDS films 1,550649 - 1,550655. The records are alphabetical by first letter of the surname only. Then it is chronological. It is quite a job to search!
Going to a new country!
Hints and Lists for the Family Historian - try this site for searching Passenger Lists using the LDS Family History Library Catalog History, Genealogy and Education - this portion of the INS website contains information about the INS Historical Reference Library collection and services, documents concerning the history of the Service as well as of immigration law, procedure, and immigration stations, and instructions for historical and genealogical research using INS records. Contact Marian Smith Hull, England - many emigrants who left from various European ports would travel to Hull where they would then transfer to a train that would take them to the port at Liverpool for the trans-Atlantic trip to either Canada or the US. Immigrant and Passenger Arrivals (NARA) catalog of NARA Microfilm Publications: Information and Links: the catalog lists National Archives microfilm publications of records relating to the arrival of passengers, crew members and vessels in United States ports, United States Customs records and Immigration and Naturalization records. The catalog includes complete roll listings for every microfilm publication Immigration - the following site offers many links including: Assimilation; Destination: Canada; Hamburg & Bremen; Immigrants and Epidemics; Immigration: Not Always A One-Way Street; Journey to America; Life In Canada; Immigration Ports of Departure and Arrival; Mariyampole Beginnings to Canadian Residence; Reasons For Immigrating To America; Sample of a 1909 Ship Manifest; Ellis Island; Maryland Port Administration; Port of Philadelphia and Camden; The Immigration Experience and much, much more - a real treasure Immigration and Naturalization (INS) - Americans encouraged relatively free and open immigration during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and did not question that policy. As the number of immigrants rose in the 1880s, and economic conditions in some areas worsened, Congress began to issue immigration legislation. Immigration records dating from July 1, 1924, remain with INS and are available only via the 'Freedom of Information Act' procedures. Records prior to 1924 are at NARA From around 1907 - 1910, people who were naturalized had to submit a certificate from the INS documenting where, when and what ship they arrived.
Immigration and Ships Passenger Lists Research guide - a well written guide by Arnold Lang to help in research of immigration records and ship's passenger lists, both on-line and off-line. This site is of great interest because it details how to find records before 1820, between 1820 and 1891, and after 1892. Remember that Ellis Island Records start at 1892. http://home.att.net/%7Earnielang/shipgide.html#top Immigration, Naturalization Passenger Lists and Ships - Alphabetical Listing and Links to ships that served Australia and New Zealand, Canada, - Ships and Passenger Lists, England, Scotland and Ireland - Ships and Passenger Lists, Ellis Island, European Countries - Databases, Ships, Passenger Lists, Immigration to American Colonies - Ships and Passenger Lists, Individual Ships and Passenger Lists, Information about Ships, Museums, Shipping Databases, The Mayflower, and miscellaneous Links to helpful information regarding immigration How To Utilize AFIHC (American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island) Immigration Records - more popularly known as "ship passenger arrival records," this site may provide evidence of a person's arrival in the united States as well as foreign birthplace. The NARA has immigration records for various ports for the years 1800-1957 Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild - a wonderful site where a lot more useful links are listed On-line availability of passenger manifests for the period of 1850-1950
When searching databases i.e. Ellis Island, by entering an ancestor's last name (surname) and their first name as you knew it, most often you don't get a return or you get an incorrect return. One cannot assume, that the name you are searching is not held in the database, or on a manifest because you don't get a 'hit'. These are some of the reasons why this often happens. 1. Most of our ancestors were illiterate and could not even spell their own name 2. The shipping company clerk put down what they 'heard' or thought they heard when the emigrant was asked what his name was. The answer would vary widely due to the clerk's inadequate training and language background. Also, the name could vary based on the immigrant's dialect. Less popular languages and dialects tended to be butchered more often. 3. The shipping clerks had poor penmanship. 4. The shipping clerk confused the data of two passengers. 5. The thousands of volunteers encoding the manifests into a database have introduced a second level of errors due to such factors as: a. Variations in training and transcription methods b. Inability to properly recognize old-style script c. Typographical errors (mis-keyed data) Additional errors introduced by the immigrant a. Immigrant did not understand the question and b. Immigrant was concealing information i.e. gave an According to Bill Tarkulich who wrote an article published in GEN DOBRY Check Chronological Events A method Bill describes as being 'extremely useful' is to construct a chronological table of events for your immigrant. Include in this table the information you find suspect. With all the data placed next to each other in chronological order, patterns begin to emerge. He includes data about friends they may have traveled with - immigrants often traveled with friends and relatives. For this exercise, you hope to be able to determine movement of immigrants. By showing who bootstrapped whom to this country, indirect research can yield surprising evidence. AFIHC Search Methodology Many folks are often surprised at how different their names appear on the manifests. Here are some tips that are offered by Bill on how to utilize the AFIHC (American Family Immigration History Center) database at the Ellis Island site: 1. Given Names were often changed by the immigrant AFTER arrival (after leaving Ellis Island) to an 'Americanized' version Check this site > It is important to understand it was NOT the Immigration and Naturalization Service and NOT the officials at Ellis Island who changed their names. For more information on this subject check out this site > 2. Surnames usually have the first letter correct, sometimes even the first two or three letters. Beyond that, all bets are off. 3. Conduct a partial text search. Go to the AFIHC search screen and enter: First name The result will locate someone, hopefully. Now select 'Close matches only'. This feature gives you any surname that begin with the 'Last Name' you specified. You should find many matches - too many to look at individually. Select 'Passenger Search Profile, Name & Gender' - EDIT. At the bottom of the next screen, select 'male' as a way to shorten the list. This will reduce the number of names. Next, Select 'Passenger Search Profile, year of arrival' - EDIT. If you don't know, you will have to guess a range of years. Again the number of names will be reduced to a more manageable number. Now look through each and every name for the last place of residence. confirm that the first name is an equivalent of the known first name. Confirm that the surname is a phonetic equivalent (or close, given spelling errors) to the surname you are searching. You MUST verify all this information by looking at the original manifest. If the original manifest image is not on-line, go to the National Archives or an LDS Family History Center to verify. This is especially critical when the expected name is wildly different. Most often, you will find that the AFIHC transcriber did not correctly convert the handwriting to the proper letters. Here is an alternative to the above search Redo the first search, leaving the First Name blank. Secondly, begin to experiment with the second and third characters of the Last Name (surname). It may not be a phonetic match you are looking for here, but a handwriting (or reading error. Try to get the subset of data down to 200 records or less and then begin the manual search process. 200 lines are 8 screen loads at 25 names per screen. Ignore the 'sailing from' and ship name information, as most often it is incorrect and extraneous information. You will only need this if you can't find the immigrant through the AFIHC database. You will need to know this information if you want to look up the manifest by locating on microfilm, organized by date and ship. Wildcards The '%' character is a wildcard, meaning you can use the% to substitute it for one or more unknown letters in a name. The more useful and powerful wildcarding technique is when a wildcard is embedded in the MIDDLE of a search string. If you need to contact NARA, use their form NATF 81 which is available on-line at More on Original Ship Manifest ... "So, for any of you who feel like going to the actual manifest, I went back and found the exact URL (it is long!)" To go to the 2nd page of the manifest, it is "previous" and not "next". Sorry! I should have added that it is entry line 18, WOHL. Alicia Jensen Immigration and Ships Passenger Lists Research Guide by Arnie Lang - Index to Microfilm Holdings in the Regional Archives - Index to Publications by Port - INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) web site is at Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Instructions for ordering microfilm publications from NARA - Links to sites with instructions for obtaining immigration and naturalization records Locating Ship Passenger Lists - NARA - The Soundex Machine - this site includes a search engine to obtain the Soundex code for a surname. The Soundex is a coded last name (surname) index based on the way a name sounds rather than the way it is spelled Also try the Guide to the Soundex System at The National Archives and Records Administration updated the "Soundex Indexing System" web page to include the 'H and W' rule back on February 19, 2000
NARA - obtain copies of National Archives records - a listing of microfilm that is available - National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - a comprehensive explanation of the naturalization process and the location of naturalization records, depending on the state the person lived and the time period of the application; includes explanation of the two-step process as well ass the "exceptions" to the general rule Mr. Charles Reeves is the Director of Archival Operations at the Southeast Regional office of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Atlanta. North Dakota's State Archives and Historical Research Library - Naturalization records, often called "Second Papers" and the Declaration of intention records, often called the "First Papers". The early records contain very little family or personal history of the applicant; often the name of the applicant, country of origin and date of records were the only data supplied Passengers and Immigrants to America - a Guide to Searching for your immigrant Ancestors in the Clayton Library, Texas Passenger List FAQs - instructions on how to find your ancestor's passenger list. Includes lists of reference books Passenger lists were preserved on microfilm and the films are available at the U.S. National Archives (NARA) in Washington, D.C. For each port, the films are also available at the National Archive Branch Archive and records Center that serves the region containing the port in question. All the films are also available at the Branch Archive in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and through the Family History Centers. The microfilm indexes for the large ports, other than New York, are somewhat more complete than the New York indexes, so they are a bit easier to access. Passenger Lists on the Internet - by Ron Prost
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