Abrams Collection Genealogy Highlights
March-April 2000
Volume 2, Number 2

The Library of Michigan maintains a large collection of resources that relate to research on immigrant ancestors. Titles may be located by searching ANSWER, the Library of Michigan's online catalog. When searching ANSWER, use the following keywords to make your search more productive; clicking on the links in this publication will take you to the ANSWER catalog search results or the catalog record for a particular item:

• passenger lists
• manifests
• border crossing
• immigrants genealogy
• ships passenger
• ship registers
• passengers genealogy
• immigrants registers
• alien manifests

Adding a geographic location will allow you to narrow your search. For example, using the keywords passenger lists and baltimore will retrieve passenger list resources that focus on the Port of Baltimore. When searching by keyword it is not necessary to capitalize proper nouns.

This publication lists notable genealogical resources available at the Library of Michigan. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list. Searching ANSWER is the only way to determine if the Library of Michigan owns the resources that you seek.

Microfilm Resources

The Library of Michigan has microfilm indexes, manifest records and passenger lists for several United States ports of entry. This list is arranged by port or border crossing point, the years covered and whether we have the index (I) and/or the passenger list/manifest (P). To locate exact call numbers search the name of the port city or state and passenger lists as keywords on ANSWER.

Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina 1890-1924 I
Atlantic, Gulf and Great Lake Ports (excluding New York) 1820-1874 I and P
Baltimore 1820-1897 I and P 1897-1952 I
Boston 1820-1891 I and P 1906-1920 I
Brownsville, Texas 1906-1951 I and P (part of Galveston)
Detroit 1906-1957 P
Galveston, Texas 1896-1952 I and P
Gulfport, Miss. 1904-1954 I
Houston 1906-1951 I and P (part of Galveston)
New Bedford, Mass. 1902-1954 I and P
New Orleans 1820-1902 I and P 1900-1952 I
New York 1820-1846, 1897-1948 I
Philadelphia 1800-1948 I and P
Pascagoula, Miss. 1903-1953 I
Portland, Maine 1893-1954 I and P
Providence, R.I. 1911-1954 I and P
Saint Albans District, Vt. 1895-1952 I and P
Savannah, Ga. 1906-1945 P

United States. National Archives and Records Service. Registers of Vessels Arriving at the Port of New York from Foreign Ports, 1789-1919. Washington, D.C.: General Records Administration, 1980.
Genealogy Microfilm F 128.25 .R44 1789
A chronological register of ships which include the name of the vessel and the arrival date at the Port of New York.

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Print Resources

Anuta, Michael J. Ships of Our Ancestors. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993.
Genealogy VM 381 .A58 1993
Photographs of passenger ships arranged alphabetically.

Boyer, Carl, III, ed. Ship Passenger Lists. Newhall, CA: Boyer, 1977.
Genealogy CS 68 .S53
Ships' passenger lists from 1600 to 1825.

Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988.
Genealogy CS 61 .C63 1988

Colletta, John Philip. They Came In Ships: A Guide to Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor's Arrival Record. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 2002.
Genealogy CS 49 .C63 2002
Housed at the Genealogy Desk.

Filby, P. William. Passenger and Immigration Lists Bibliography, 1538-1900: Being a Guide to Published Lists of Arrivals in the United States and Canada. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1988.
Genealogy Z 5313.U5 P38 1988
Bibliographic information for more than 2,550 published passenger and immigration lists.

Filby, P. William and Mary K. Meyer, eds. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records of About 500,000 Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981. 3 vols.
Genealogy CS 68 .P363
Housed at the Genealogy Index Table.
The first of several cumulative sets of alphabetically arranged indexes, listing more than 2 million surnames.

Glazier, Ira A., ed. The Famine Immigrants: Lists of Irish Immigrants Arriving at the Port of New York, 1846-1851. 7 vols. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983.
Genealogy E 184 .I6 F25 1983
A list of Irish immigrants arranged first by ship arrival at the Port of New York and then indexed by surname.

Glazier, Ira A. and P. William Filby, eds. Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports. 64 vols. to date. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1988-.
Genealogy E 184 .G3 G38 1988
A list of German immigrants arranged first by ship at the port of debarkation and then indexed by surname.

Glazier, Ira A. and P. William Filby, eds. Italians to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports, 1880-1899. 12 vols. to date. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1992- .
Genealogy E 184 .I8 I844 1992
A list of Italian immigrants arranged first by ship at the port of debarkation and then indexed by surname.

Morton Allan Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals for the Years 1890 to 1930 at the Port of New York and for the Years 1904 to 1926 at the Ports of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987.
Genealogy HE 945 .A2 D5 1987
Housed at the Genealogy Desk.
Arrivals of passenger steamships by year, alphabetically by steamship line, and includes the port of arrival and port of departure.

Swierenga, Robert P. Dutch Immigrants in U.S. Ship Passenger Manifests, 1820-1880: An Alphabetical Listing by Household Heads and Independent Persons. 2 vols. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1983.
Genealogy E 184.D9 S95 1983
A listing of Dutch nationals arriving in the United States.

Tepper, Michael. American Passenger Arrival Records: A Guide to the Records of Immigrants Arriving at American Ports by Sail and Steam. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993.
Genealogy CS 49 .T46 1993
A guide to the records and archival resources that document immigrant arrivals from the 1600s to the 1900s.

Tepper, Michael, ed. Passengers to America: A Consolidation of Ships Passenger Lists from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977.
Genealogy CS 68 .P37 1977
Passenger lists containing more than 18,000 names extracted from a periodical source.

United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Immigrant and Passenger Arrivals: A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm Publications. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1991.
Genealogy Z 5305.U5 U54 1991
Housed at the Genealogy Desk.
A useful tool for discovering what is available on microfilm.

Zaleski, Jan Steven. Guide to Records of Border Crossings Between the United States and Canada, 1895-1954. Detroit: J.S. Zaleski, 1993.
Genealogy JV 6654 .Z3 1993
A good explanation of border crossing records with examples.

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Internet Resources

Ancestry.com
www.ancestry.com/
A large collection of searchable databases containing information on more than 500 million people.

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
www.immigrantships.net/
A volunteer project offering transcribed passenger lists.

NARA Archival Research Catalog
www.archives.gov/research/arc/index.html
From the National Archives.

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
www.ellisisland.org/
This site provides an overview of an ambitious project that is gathering information on more than 17 million people who immigrated through the Port of New York between 1892-1924.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: History, Genealogy and Education
www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=d21f3711ca5ca110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=d21f3711ca5ca110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD/
This Web site contains information about the Immigration and Naturalization Historical Reference Library collection and services.

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Updated 05/07/2009