Ancestry, the world's leading resource for online family history & genealogy brings you a deep dive on understanding United States passenger lists to discover your ancestors.

1. Discovering U.S. Passenger Lists on Ancestry
Juliana Szucs, Social Community Manager, Ancestry

2. Eras of Immigration: Pre-1820 Passenger Lists
• No laws required captains to maintain passenger lists
• No central repository holds manifests created prior to 1820
• Bad news: some have been lost or destroyed
• Good news: some survived
Brig Friendship, of Shields, England, 1814
From Philadelphia Passenger
Lists, 1800-1945 on
Ancestry.com
Washington, May 1800

3. Eras of Immigration: Pre-1820 Passenger Lists
• No laws required captains to maintain passenger lists
• No central repository holds manifests created prior to 1820
• Bad news: some have been lost or destroyed
• Good news: some survived
• More good news: Some were published
Brig Friendship, of Shields, England, 1814
From Emigrants from England to the
American Colonies, 1773-1776
on Ancestry.com

4. Eras of Immigration: Pre-1820 Passenger Lists
 Sometimes immigration information was included in other
biographical publications.
From Directory of Scots in
the Carolinas, 1680-1830
on Ancestry.com
From Great Migration
Begins Index:
Immigrants to New
England, 1620-33 on
Ancestry.com

5. Finding What’s Available on Ancestry.com

6. Eras of Immigration: 1820s to 1890s
• Steerage Act of 1819, aimed at regulating overcrowding on
ships, required a list be submitted to the customs collector at
the port of arrival.
• “Customs Manifests” or “Customs Passenger Lists” required:
o Ship and captain’s name
o Ports of departure and arrival
o Date of arrival
o Passenger name
o Age
o Gender
o Occupation
o Nationality

7. Eras of Immigration: 1820s to 1890s
From the lists of passengers arriving in Charleston, South Carolina, January-March 1825,
Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists, 1820-1873 and 1893-1959
Unlike most
passenger
arrival records,
this list was
compiled at the
port of arrival.
Ships are listed
in order of
arrival.

8. Births and Deaths on Board
• You may find births noted on manifests.
• Sometimes with the parents’ listing.
From the Highland Mary, arrived Port of New York, 01 June 1852
• Sometimes at the end of the manifest.
From the Science, arrived Port of New York, 07 November 1831

9. Deaths on Board
• Deaths were typically noted with a date.

10. Eras of Immigration: 1890s to 1957
 In 1891 responsibility for passenger lists was transferred to the U.S. Office of Immigration. Additional information was
required throughout 1890s-1900s. Forms were standardized in 1893. Changes to the form in 1903, 1906, and 1907.
 Marital status
 Last residence–town names!
 Final destination
 If they have been in the U.S. and when, where, and how long
 Where they going to join a relative, who and where
 Whether they could read and write
 If they have a train ticket to their final destination
 Who paid for the passage
 How much money were they carrying
 If they had ever been in prison, an almshouse, institution for the insane
 Whether they polygamists
 If they had a contract to work in the U.S.
 Whether they were healthy
 Ethnic background
 Name/address of relative in the old country

11. Immigration Records on Ancestry
• Ancestry immigrant arrival records include more than 132 collections with
140 million+ records.
• Collections span every state along every coast, plus border states.
• Because the records are in so many collections, it’s best to search on the
category (Immigration & Travel) or sub-category (Passenger Lists or
Border Crossings & Passports) levels.
11

12. Searching Immigration Collections

13. Searching Immigration Collections
Search the entire category or
narrow to just Passenger Lists or
Border Crossings & Passports

14. What Do You Need to Know to Search?
• Age of the immigrant (You can estimate from
census, vital records, etc.)
• Family structure, including extended family who
may be traveling with your ancestor
• Nationality
• Estimated date of arrival

15. Narrowing the Arrival Date

16. Narrowing the Arrival Date

17. Narrowing the Arrival Date
• Check censuses for 1900-1930; they list arrival dates

18. Narrowing the Arrival Date
• State censuses
1925 Iowa State Census from the Iowa State
Census Collection, 1836-1925 on Ancestry.com
Davenport, Scott County, Image 4

19. Narrowing the Arrival Date
• Vital records may
include number of
years in this
country

20. Other Considerations
20
• Ethnic given names
• Jan=John, etc.
• BehindtheName.com is a good starting point.
• Learn about ethnic pronunciation of surnames
• Mekalski, Mekala, Menkalski, Menkala, Menkalska
• ę = “en” sound
• Place names may be spelled phonetically
• Wyszków, Wiszkow, Vyszkov, Wischkow
• An ancestor may have given a county or province.
• Look for evidence of aliases and name changes in
passports, naturalization records and other documents.

21. Wishing you the best of luck with your search!