A RECIPE FOR LOCATING U'S' IMMIGRATION RECORDS

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A RECIPE FOR LOCATING U.S. IMMIGRATION RECORDS

• A Cup of Colletta, Mixed with Morse, and
  Sprinkled with Nam
• Charles B. Nam

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INTRODUCTION

• 1. Colletta, Morse, and Nam
• 2. What will and wont be covered
• 3. Forms of presentation
• 4. Handouts

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COLLETTA, MORSE, AND NAM

• John Colletta is a specialist in immigration and
  author of They Came in Ships. He gave the main
  lecture at the TGS Spring Seminar in 2004.
• Stephen Morse is an electrical engineer who
  invented the Intel 8086 processor that preceded
  the Pentium computer processor. His One-Step
  genealogical procedures provide shortcuts to
  family history research.
• Charles Nam is a lesser expert who has written
  academic books and articles on immigration and
  has searched many immigrant records in compiling
  his family history.

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WHAT WILL AND WONT BE COVERED

• Covering tips to find your ancestors in
  immigration records
• Covering references to major immigration record
  sources
• Not covering immigration since 1957 (with
  exceptions) or air travel
• Much information not covered here can be found in
  the references provided

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FORMS OF PRESENTATION

• The basic presentation will be in this Power
  Point format.
• For parts of the overall presentation (especially
  for looking at Morses work), we will switch to
  the Internet.

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HANDOUTS

• The first handout is an outline of my
  presentation.
• The second handout is a list of important
  references on immigration records, including both
  books and internet sites.
• (If you email me, I can send you the Power Point
  slides and reference pages.)

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OVERVIEW OF U.S. IMMIGRATION

• 1. U.S. immigration trends
• 2. Dont forget emigration
• 3. Shipping lines
• 4. Ports of departure
• 5. Ports of arrival

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U.S. IMMIGRATION, 1820-1924
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DONT FORGET EMIGRATION

• During some periods, many people left the U.S.
  for other countries
• Some immigrated, then emigrated, and maybe
  immigrated again
• This is apart from the rejection of some arrivals
  who were sent back to their point of departure

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SHIPPING LINES

• Many shipping companies transported immigrants to
  the U.S. from various places
• Major companies included Cunard and Holland
  America,
• Knowing the name of the ship a relative came on
  can facilitate locating the immigrants record.
  Knowing the ship and the date will give you
  quicker access.

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PORTS OF DEPARTURE

• Liverpool
• Glasgow Boulogne
• Rotterdam Le Havre
• Antwerp Bremen
• Hamburg And many others

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PORTS OF ARRIVAL

• HOW MANY PORTS OF ENTRY DID IMMIGRANTS TO U.S.
  USE?
• ANSWER 101 PORTS
• MAJOR PORTS New York
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Baltimore
• New Orleans
• Various other
  locations on Atlantic Coast, Gulf Coast, Great
  Lakes, West Coast, and Alaska

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PRELIMINARY STEPS TO PASSENGER LISTS

• 1. Immigration info from censuses
• 2. Immigration info from naturalization papers
• 3. Identifying ships and their schedules

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IMMIGRATION INFO FROM CENSUSES

• In censuses of 1850 - 1930, info on place of
  birth of person
• In censuses of 1880 1900, info on place of
  birth of person, father, and mother
• In censuses of 1910-1930, info on place of birth
  of person, father, and mother, and year of
  immigration

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IMMIGRATION INFO FROM NATURALIZATION PAPERS

• Alien arrivals who wanted to become citizens had
  to file for naturalization.
• Naturalization papers asked for age, year of
  immigration, name of ship, port and date of
  arrival.
• Some also had passports for their travel.

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IDENTIFYING SHIPS AND THEIR SCHEDULES

• There are many indexes to immigrant ships and
  their schedules.
• Some show photographs of the ships.
• Knowing the ship name and dates of travel can
  facilitate locating passenger lists.

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MAJOR PERIODS OF PASSENGER ARRIVALS

• 1. Pre-1820 arrivals
• 2. 1820 to 1890 arrivals
• 3. 1891 to 1957 arrivals

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PRE-1820 ARRIVALS

• Records not found in National Archives because no
  central data collection.
• There are many books listing the pre-1820
  arrivals, many focusing on one country of origin.
• Some leading ones are in Collettas book.

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1820-1890 ARRIVALS

• Congress passed law in 1819 to require ships to
  have passenger lists (under a federal/state
  system)
• Required were the name of the ship and its
  master, port of embarkation, date and port of
  arrival, and each passengers name, age, sex,
  occupation, and nationality. No standard format,
  and some ships added other items of information

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1891-1957 ARRIVALS

• Federal government assumed total control of
  immigration
• Steamship companies were responsible for
  returning to homelands passengers who were
  refused admittance
• A separate agency was set up to handle
  immigration matters and manifests were
  standardized

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WHERE CAN YOU FIND PASSENGER LISTS?

• 1. Hamburg emigration records
• 2. British emigration records
• 3. U.S. National Archives
• 4. Ancestry.com
• 5. Ellis Island and related records
• 6. Records for other ports of arrival

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HAMBURG EMIGRATION RECORDS

• Many Europeans came to Bremen or Hamburg in
  Germany to board ships for America
• Bremen departure records were destroyed, except
  for 1920-1939
• Hamburg departure records still exist and can be
  accessed online

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BRITISH EMIGRATION RECORDS

• Many ships from the Continent went to the east
  coast of England and were transported to places
  like Liverpool where other ships took them to
  America
• British archival records of departures can be
  accessed online or through government
  correspondence
• (Come to Mary Ann Prices lecture next week on
  this topic)

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U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES

• The Archives maintains all records of immigration
  to the U.S.
• Passenger lists can be viewed at National
  Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sites
  in Washington and Atlanta
• Indexes to them can be found online at NARA

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ANCESTRY.COM

• Several immigration search engines are listed in
  the references, but Ancestry.com is the leading
  one
• Ancestry.com is fee-based, but it can be accessed
  through some libraries
• The Morse site, to be dealt with later, makes use
  of Ancestry.com

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ELLIS ISLAND RELATED RECORDS

• When most people think of immigration, they think
  of Ellis Island
• Although a large percentage of immigrants came
  through other arrival stations, Ellis Island and
  its neighbor, the Statue of Liberty, are symbols
  of U.S. immigration
• Ellis Island has its own website

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RECORDS FOR OTHER PORTS OF ARRIVAL

• The references cite some sources for these
• Family History Centers (Mormon) can be useful
  (also indexed online)
• The Morse site incorporates a number of them in
  searching passenger lists

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STEPHEN MORSES ONE-STEP SEARCHES

• Presenting Morses site on locating -
• 1. Castle Garden arrivals
• 2. Ellis Island arrivals
• 3. Baltimore arrivals
• 4. Boston arrivals
• 5. Galveston arrivals
• 6. Philadelphia arrivals
• 7. San Francisco arrivals

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CASTLE GARDEN ARRIVALS

• Prior to 1855 there were no immigrant receiving
  stations in the U.S.
• Castle Gardens was the receiving station
  beginning in 1855
• Ellis Island was opened in 1892
• The Barge Office was an interim station from
  1890-1891 and from 1897-1900

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ELLIS ISLAND ARRIVALS

• Immigrants coming to Ellis Island were examined
  medically and credentials verified
• Those who passed examinations were ferried to the
  south tip of Manhattan to meet their
  relatives/sponsors
• Those who failed examinations were either
  detained for a period or sent back to their place
  of departure (Record of Aliens Held for Special
  Inquiry)

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OTHER ARRIVALS

• Baltimore and Boston were high volume ports of
  arrival
• Galveston was most notable when agencies tried to
  steer immigrants to the Midwest
• Philadelphia was the leading arrival port before
  New York established a station
• San Francisco was the leading West Coast arrival
  port for Asian migration

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MORSES OTHER ONE-STEP SEARCHES

• In addition to passenger lists, Morses site
  features
• Ship lists
• Birth and death records
• Canadian and British censuses
• New York State censuses
• Various genealogical tools

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IMMIGRATION INFO FROM GOOGLE

• The internet search engine GOOGLE can be useful
  for immigration searches
• On a couple of occasions, where I could not find
  immigration records of a relative, I typed the
  persons name in GOOGLE and discovered leads to
  immigration or other genealogical information