Diane Snyder Ptak
Certified American Lineage Specialist
12 Tice Road, Albany, NY 12203
Telephone: (518) 456-3370
Diane Snyder Ptak, author, lecturer and educator, has been actively involved in the pursuit of family history since 1972. She has a Master of Science in Education degree and is a Certified American Lineage Specialist. As president of Lineages Unlimited, she conducts individualized family searches for clients from through-out North America and Europe and is an estate heir researcher.
Editor's Note:
The complete text of the author's publication, A Compilation of American
and Canadian Passenger / Emigration Registers, has not been published here.
The bibliography portion was too large to appear within this article, but it
is available from the author for $15.00 plus $2.00 shipping and handling.
A companion publication, A Passage In Time: The Ships That Brought Our
Ancestors, also compiled by Diane Ptak, is available from her for $15.00
plus $2.00 shipping. This compilation includes the history of immigrant ships,
1700-1940, and an extensive bibliography of ship-related texts, libraries, etc.
A key finding aid to uncovering descriptions and the history of ships.
Locating immigrant ancestors in passenger and emigration registers has often been a time consuming challenge. But now, thanks to the computer, a tremendous surge in interest in those elusive passenger lists and untold volunteer hours, these surviving lists or abstracts from the lists are being mass produced.
Historians, demographers and family record keepers may now have almost instant success in their search. All that is necessary is to establish the approximate dates when the immigrants arrived, their place of arrival, and the resources of a well-diversified library. The following texts can be ordered through interlibrary loan. There are, however, virtually no passenger lists for any eastern Canadian ports pre-1865, and official United States ship passenger lists pre-1820 are rare.
The data available in the passenger lists varies from as little as the name of the head of household, his/her age, dates of departure and arrival, and the ship's name, to the detailed manifests of the late 19th and 20th centuries. During this later period, the following additional information would be included: occupation of the passenger, birthplace, next of kin, height, eye and hair color, with whom the immigrant would be living with in America, and how much money he/she brought.
AMERICA
Colonial Era, 1607-1776
During this period there were few official passenger lists made. The majority of those that have survived have been published. For the thousands for whom no passenger lists are available, emigrant lists may provide the missing links.
Newspapers of the period often included cargo advertisements for ships docked along the wharf. Rarely would passengers be listed; however, newspapers would announce prospective indentured servants and redemptioners. (Upon arrival a redemptioner paid for his voyage to America by selling himself to the highest bidder.) Once these immigrants had been sold, the results of the sales would often be published in the newspapers.
Many references are available for this period. For a chronological and ship-by- ship listing of the passenger lists available in journals and miscellaneous newsletters, check Olga Miller's text, Migration, Emigration and Immigration: Principally to the United States and in the United States (2 volumes). Published by and available from The Everton Publishers, Inc., P. O. Box 368, Logan, UT 84323-0368.
Ms Ptak's work, A Compilation of American and and Canadian Passenger / Emigration Registers, has a detailed bibliography of the Colonial Era, 1607-1776.
Early American Years, 1776-1819
For the early American years, 1776- 1819, few government related passenger lists have been kept. Published passenger list texts are often arranged by U.S. port and/or ethnic group.
The Middle and Modern Years of America, 1820 to Present
The Middle and Modern Years of America, 1820 to the Present: U.S. Customs Service (1820-1891) and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (1891-present) are the time periods which mark the beginning of official passenger list record keeping for major U.S. and some minor U.S. ports.
The original U.S. Customs Service records are housed at the Balch Institute of Temple University. Access is restricted; however, the records are currently being published by ethnic groups.
The National Archives holdings include the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service registers. Microfilm copies of this data may be found at the National Archives, some regional federal archives are at the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City, Utah (to 1935). Those immigrating directly and indirectly (by way of another port before arriving at their American port destination) are found on different lists. Crew lists are also available for some years.
Passenger lists for a few European ports during scattered years are also available. The most well known of these is the Historic Emigration Office, The Museum of Hamburg History, Steamship Werner, Hamburg, Germany which has passenger lists from this port for 1850 to 1914. The search fee is $30.00 for the first year and $10.00 for each additional year. Letters may be addressed to the Hamburg Historic Emigration Office, Bei den St. Pauli, Landungs-Brucke, 2000 Hamburg 4, Germany.
Newspapers of the day at the port of debarkation or arrival might have listed those passengers who were traveling cabin or first class.
A wide variety of emigrant lists are also available. These rosters have been kept by the clergy, police and city officials and have been widely compiled in Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. For further specifics on this topic be sure to read chapter 15, Tracking Immigrant Origins, in The Source by Eakle and Cerny.
Indices To U.S. Passenger Lists
The National Archives has inbound ship passenger arrival records dating back to 1820 for most East and Gulf Coast ports and a few lists dating back to 1800 for Philadelphia. (No laws required outbound passenger lists be kept.) For a $10.00 fee the National Archives will search the indices and copy a relevant record. The applicant must know the name of the person, port of entry, month and year of arrival (or just the year if found in the early indexed records) and sometimes the ship name. No payment is due if a match is not found.
For unindexed lists, the National Archives will make searches if more details are provided.
Requests for National Archive searches must be placed on NATF Form 81, avail- able from General Reference Branch (NNRG), National Archives and Records Administration, 7th and Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20408.
The following indices are available for
U.S. ports:
New York City,
Lists 1820-1948, 1949-1954
Indices 1820-1846, 1897-1943
Philadelphia
Lists 1800-1945
Indices 1800-1948
Boston
Lists 1820-1943
Indices 1820-1891, 1899-1940
Baltimore
Lists 1820-1909
Indices - Federal 1820-1952
City 1833-1866
New Orleans
Lists 1820-1945
Indices 1820-1952
San Francisco
Lists 1893-1953, 1882 for Chinese
Indices 1893-1934
Miscellaneous
Lists and indices vary.
For a more complete listing of the indices available and the whereabouts of these lists for minor ports, the text Migration, Emigration and Immigration: Principally to the United States and in the United States, by Olga Miller, may provide the answers to your questions.
Canadian Records
Unfortunately, colonial Canadian immigration records are extremely sparse. A few scattered lists relating mainly to subsidized British colony emigration schemes, 1817 to 1831 are available at the Public Archive of Canada, 395 Wellington St., Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N3. In general, passenger list records did not begin until 1865.
Canadian ports with ship passenger lists are:
St. John 1900-1918
North Sydney 1906-1919
Vancouver 1905-1919
Victoria and Pacific Ports 1905-1919
(Microfilm of the above passenger lists are available at the Niagara Falls Public Library, 4848 Victoria Ave., Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada L2E 4C5.)
Some researchers have attempted to substitute border crossing records for passenger lists. It should be noted these records do not commence until 1895. They are available at the National Archives (Canadian); records for the years 1895 to 1954 may be searched. The Mormon Family History Library has border crossing records microfilm for 1895 to 1949. Soundex lists are available for 1895 to 1924.
