National Archives at New York City

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Passenger Arrival Lists

General Information

Immigration records, also known as "passenger arrival records," can provide genealogical information including:

  • a person's nationality, place of birth
  • ship name and date of entry to the United States
  • age, height, eye and hair color
  • profession
  • place of last residence
  • name and address of relatives they are joining in the U.S.
  • amount of money they are carrying, etc.

It can be useful to research other genealogy sources to aid your search for passenger arrival records. Naturalization records, for example, particularly after 1906, can contain specific details of a person's legal entry into the U.S. -- the exact date and means (ship name, for example) of arrival. Census records often show year of immigration.

Our Records

Microfilm Research

Our office has microfilm of indexes to passenger lists of vessels arriving at the Port of New York for the years 1820-1846 and 1897-1943. The passenger list records were created by the U.S. Customs Service (Record Group 36), and the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] (Record Group 85).  The passenger lists themselves are available at our office via the online databases listed below.

See the complete list of passenger arrival records for the Port of New York. 

You can read more about these microfilm publications, and the locations where you can view them, in the National Archives online Microfilm Catalog. Search for the exact publication number ("T715", for example) as the keyword.

Visiting Our Facility

For information on visiting our facility, please call us at 212.401.1620 or 866.840.1752 (toll-free) or view details online.

Researchers coming to the Regional Archives should review the researcher guidelines and facility information. Researchers may be required to present photo identification to obtain a NARA researcher identification card.

Original Record Note:
Due to the fragile nature of the original records, researchers will only have access to the microfilm and digital copies.

Obtaining Copies

Self-service microfilm copies at our facility are $.40 per page. Certified copies are an additional $15 per record. Staff are available to help with research and copies. If you require a certified copy from microfilm, you must ask for staff assistance.

We are unable to search our microfilm for specific entries or provide reproductions in response to letters or telephone calls. The microfilm is available for free public use at our facility.

If you are not planning to visit our facility and conduct your research, you can submit an online request for copies of ship passenger arrival records. If you can provide sufficient information, they will conduct a search of the indexes and provide you with pertinent copies of ship manifest pages.

Online Databases

Researcher Note

The following databases were created using National Archives passenger arrival records and indexes. While they cover essentially the same records, the indexing might have been done differently. If you can't find someone in one database, try the others that cover your time period.

Access to Archival Databases (AAD)

The Castle Garden Immigration Center (CGIC) created these records by extracting information from ship passenger lists and expanding upon the work done by the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. The series is Ship Passenger Lists, which includes a file with manifest header information and four passenger list files:

  • German, French, and Swiss Passenger Records, ca. 1820 - ca. 1912
  • Records of Passengers from Ireland and the United Kingdom, ca. 1820 - ca. 1912
  • Italian Passenger Records, ca. 1820 - ca. 1912
  • Records of Passengers from the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and other European Countries, ca. 1820 - ca. 1912

The records are searchable through AAD by selecting Immigrants in the Browse by Category box on the main page.

The Frequently Asked Questions for these records provide more background and research tips.

Ellis Island

Ellis Island has an online searchable database, created by the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation, of "65 million records of passengers arriving to the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957". Registration may be required.

Ancestry.com / Family Search

The New York arrivals, 1820 - 1957, have been digitized and are available via the Ancestry and Family Search subscription sites. These sites have pretty powerful search databases and include scans of the actual manifests. They also include records for many other ports besides New York, including Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to name just a few. These sites require a subscription or at least a login to access from home, though they may be available for free public use at a local library. The records are available through a variety of individual databases, from the original source material (NARA microfilm) but are also consolidated as follows: 


Ancestry


Family Search

 

Other Resources

Family History Centers

Another option is to contact a Family History Center nearest your location. Family History Centers are operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). They have purchased copies of National Archives passenger arrival records for various ports in the U.S. including the Port of New York. 

Online

 

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