- If your immigrant ancestor arrived in the United States after 1900, seek for them in the 1900, 1910, 1920, or 1930 U.S. census and look for the column that indicates the year of their arrival. Enter that information in the Migration Arrival section to refine your search for traveler arrival records.
- Look through the complete record for any other family members who may have been traveling with you. The family tree can help you tell your ancestor apart from others with the same name. However, keep in mind that the family may or may not have traveled together. It was customary for one or two members of the family to arrive first, then send for the rest of the family once they had found work and a place to live.
- Create a timeline based on what you know about your ancestor to try to pinpoint the year of their immigration.
- Try searching for simply a surname and the town or county of origin in documents where the town or county of origin is available. Other family members may have visited at different times.
- When you uncover your ancestor's passenger arrival record, glance at the original photograph since it may contain information like the immigrant's nearest relative's name and address, their intended destination in their new country, or the names of other relatives accompanying them.
- If you come across a record in an index collection or a transcription, look for information in the database description and supporting articles on how to order the original record, if it still exists.
- Just because your forefathers sailed from a certain port doesn't indicate they resided there. Remember that they could have traveled hundreds of miles to get to the port.
- Make sure to keep an eye out for additional arrivals. Many immigrants traveled to their new country on multiple occasions before settling down.
- You might even discover that your immigrant ancestor came in North America via a Canadian port if you're a U.S. immigrant. For many years, traveling to Canada was less expensive than traveling to the United States. If you're still having trouble finding your ancestor, look into Canadian Passenger Arrivals, 1865-1935, Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924, and Border Crossings: From Canada to the United States, 1895-1956.
Access to Archival Databases (AAD)
- Data files relating to Russian immigration to the United States, covering the years 1834 through 1897.
- Passengers Arriving at the Port of New York During the Irish Famine, from December 1, 1846 to December 31, 1851
- Data files relating to German immigration to the United States, spanning the years 1850 to 1897.
- Data Files on Italian Immigration to the United States, documenting the years 1855 to 1900.
These listings of primarily Russian, Irish, German, and Italian immigrants who came to New York during certain periods in the mid to late 1800s were created by the Center for Immigration Research at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies and are searchable through NARA's online catalog Access to Archival Databases (AAD).
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Select Passenger Lists from the AAD main page's Browse by Category, Genealogy/Personal History section.
Castle Garden
This free online searchable database, created by the Battery Conservancy, contains records for 10 million immigrants from 1830 to 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. The database, which can be searched by passenger name, contains data such as age, gender, literacy, occupation, country of origin, port of embarkation, date of arrival in New York, and ship name.
Castle Garden served as America's first official immigration hub from 1855 to 1890.
Ellis Island
The Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation has established an online searchable database of 22.5 million immigrants who arrived in New York between 1892 and 1924. You must register, but it is free, and you will be able to examine scanned photos of actual passenger manifests. You can also order copies from the website.
Between 1892 and 1924, more than 20 million immigrants came through Ellis Island in the Port of New York.
Select the databaseNew York Passenger Lists from Ancestry's Immigration Collection.
Similar databases have been produced by Ancestry for a number of other ports outside New York, including Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, to mention a few. They also contain a list of ships and photographs of ships. All of them are available through their Immigration Collection.
How do I find my Irish immigration records?
Official (outbound) passenger lists from Ireland can be found in the Board of Trade documents (reference BT27) at the National Archives in Kew, Surrey, England, dating back to 1890. (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk). These listings are grouped by port of departure on a monthly basis.
Prior to 1890, travellers were more likely to be identified at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. You should go to the appropriate National Archives' website:
The Immigration Collection also includes 16.3 million passengers arriving in the United Kingdom (from non-European ports) between 1878 and 1960; 8.4 million ‘unassisted' immigrants to New South Wales, Australia, from 1826 to 1922; 1.6 million Assisted/Unassisted Immigrants to Victoria, Australia, 450,000 ‘assisted' immigrants to New South Wales from 1828-1896, and various other smaller Australian collections; and 7.3 million passengers arriving at Canadian ports between 1878 and 1960.
The Passenger and Immigration Lists Index is a database of published arrival records to North America in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The ‘US Immigration Collection' contains an index to 4.5 million immigrants who arrived in ports in what is now the United States and Canada in the 1500s.
On their website, www.immigrantships.net, the Immigrant Ships Transcribers' Guild has transcribed over 61,000 passenger lists, with work continuing.
By the mid-nineteenth century, New York was the gateway to the United States for 70% of Irish emigration. Two websites keep track of the majority of these travellers heading to New York:
The website www.famineships.info contains nearly 400,000 records of people from Ireland who went through ports like New York, Boston, Baltimore, and New Orleans. On this website, there are no charges.
Passenger departure lists naming Derry emigrants were gathered from four distinct sources and published in three publications by the Genealogical Publishing Company for the years 1803-1806, 1833-1839, and 1847-1871.
- Brian Mitchell's Irish Passenger Lists 1847-1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on J & J Cooke Line and McCorkell Line Ships (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988)
This book, which includes an index, contains the names and addresses of 22,199 emigrants who sailed on J & J Cooke ships from Derry to Canada (Saint John, New Brunswick, and Quebec) and the United States (Philadelphia) between 1847 and 1867; and 5,184 emigrants who sailed on William McCorkell & Co. ships from Derry to Philadelphia and New York between 1864 and 1871. J & J Cooke ships were normally loaded with lumber and McCorkell ships with grain on the return voyage.
- Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim by Brian Mitchell, 1833-1839. (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1989)
This book lists the names and locations of 1,922 emigrants and 270 seasonal migrants (traveling to harvest work in England or Scotland) who left Counties Antrim and Derry between 1833 and 1839, organized by townland and parish.
- Passenger Lists from Ireland to America, 1803-1806: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Ireland to America Brian Mitchell's extract from the Hardwicke Papers (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1995)
Between March 1803 and March 1806 there were 4,500 emigrants on 109 sailings from Irish ports to the United States, according to this book. Dublin had the most sailings, with 28, followed by Derry with 26, Belfast with 22, and Newry with 19.
How do I access immigration records?
To request immigration records from the USCIS, fill out Form G-639, Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Request. On the USCIS website, you may find the application and instructions.
When did Ellis Island close?
What is the meaning of Ellis Island? Between 1892 and 1954, when it was abandoned, Ellis Island was the first and biggest federal immigrant processing center, receiving nearly 12 million future Americans.
What percentage of immigrants were deported from Ellis Island?
vi) While 20% of those entering each day were detained due to medical or legal issues, just 2% of the total were eventually deported. ix) Between 1892 and 1954, 25 million people immigrated to the United States, with 73 percent passing through Ellis Island.
Why were the ship manifests so important Ellis Island?
Steerage passengers were then faced by U.S. customs officers, who promptly checked luggage for dutiable goods or contraband after being issued manifest tags to make it easier for inspectors to discover their information. After that, the passengers were loaded onto tiny steamboats and transported to Ellis Island. “The boats would transport 700, 800, or possibly 1,000 passengers, according to Moreno. “With as many as 10,000 passengers and numerous steam ships coming per day, passengers would be required to form two separate lines: one for women and children, including boys under the age of 15, and one for men.”
According to Moreno, the first step was a medical checkup by military surgeons. “Immigrants, who were usually peasants, poor Jews, or small townpeople, were sometimes puzzled and confused because they were clothed as military men,” he recalls. “They were baffled as to who these folks were. They mistook them for cops or troops. However, as the lines grew longer and longer, the doctors were forced to evaluate everyone as soon as possible for eye problems, skin disorders, heart disease, and other ailments.”
Why do they call it steerage?
“That area of the ship directly below the quarter-deck, right before the bulkhead of the big cabin in most ships of war, the portion of the ‘tween-decks just before the gun-room bulkhead,” according to tradition. The steering tackle that connected the rudder to the tiller or helm passed through the space, hence the name.” Second-class passengers are known as steerage passengers on some ships. The steerage is the name given to the admiral's quarters on the middle deck of three-deckers.”
The ship's steerage compartment was originally utilized to accommodate passengers, with hundreds crammed into a single enormous hold. Long rows of big shared bunks with straw mattresses and no bed linens were the norm.
Is the Statue of Liberty located on Ellis Island?
Visitors must ride a ferry to Ellis Island from either Battery Park in Manhattan or Liberty State Park in New Jersey. The ferry service is run by Statue Cruises.
The only approved concessionaire authorised to sell tickets and provide ferry access to Liberty and Ellis Islands is Statue Cruises. As a result, travelers should avoid buying tickets from street vendors in and near Battery Park. The grounds on Liberty Island and Ellis Island, as well as the museums on each island the Statue of Liberty Museum and the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration will not be open to the public if tickets are purchased from street vendors.
How many Irish died on coffin ships?
Due to their unseaworthy nature, overcrowding, lack of clean drinking water, unclean circumstances, and the rapid spread of illness, many famine ships of the time were dubbed “coffin ships” and experienced many deaths. Up to 100,000 individuals are thought to have died on board these ships. Surprisingly, the Jeanie Johnston defied the odds and escaped with no casualties. Discover how she achieved it by taking the tour.
Why did Irish immigrate to Australia?
The Irish flocked in droves to Victoria. From 1854 to World War I, they were the second-largest immigrant group behind the English. More over one in every four Victorians was born in Ireland by 1871, when the community totaled 100,468.
Due to poverty and poor living conditions, the Irish famine of the 1840s drove a great number of people to migrate. They worked as whalers, fishermen, and farm hands in Victoria, as well as laborers and factory workers in the townships. A select handful went on to become real estate investors and professionals.
Between 1850 and 1890, the majority of Irish immigrants to Victoria were assisted immigrants, many of whom were fleeing cultural restrictions in their homeland. They arrived in equal numbers of men and women, unlike many other tribes. Many people went to the goldfields in search of riches.
Victorians with Irish ancestors have long been prominent in Victorian society. Both the accused and the judge who sentenced bushranger Ned Kelly to death, Sir Redmond Barry, were from Irish families at the time of his trial in 1880. People from Ireland have also played a significant role in political campaigns seeking justice for Victorian workers.
The Irish community in Victoria was a great supporter of the Catholic Church's growth. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, nuns and priests came to Melbourne to build Catholic churches, schools, and orphanages, such as St Peter and Paul's Church in South Melbourne. The nuns were dispatched here to care for Irish orphans and street youngsters.
Mass immigration from Ireland had ceased by the early twentieth century. Irish immigration plummeted and has been low ever since, despite the fact that over 15,620 Victorians were born in the Republic of Ireland, according to the 2016 census.
Irish culture is still quite popular in Melbourne, with both Irish and non-Irish people. Those of Irish descent, in particular, have made a significant contribution to every element of Victorian society.
How many Irish came through Ellis Island?
Annie Moore, a seventeen-year-old Irish girl, was the first of the 12 million people that sailed past the Statue of Liberty and arrived at Ellis Island in New York City to begin their new lives in America.
The Ellis Island immigration station in New York Harbor opened its doors on January 1, 1892, and welcomed its first immigrant, Annie Moore, from Queenstown, County Cork.
In the shadow of the famed Statue of Liberty, the Ellis Island complex served as a gateway for more than 12 million immigrants who landed in New York City to begin their new lives in America. This institution was the largest immigrant inspection site in the United States from 1892 until 1954. More than 3.5 million Irish immigrants were processed at Ellis Island throughout its 62-year operation, making it a significant New York landmark for Irish Americans.