New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island) - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States  New York

What is in the Collection?
Index and images of passenger and crew lists of ships arriving at the port of New York. The collection consist of parts of two National Archive microfilm publications.


 * Rolls 581 through 675 covering the years 1892 through 1897 in Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820-1897, M237, Record Group 36, Records of the U.S. Customs Service. For the years 1820-1891 see | New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891


 * Rolls 1 through 3595 covering the years 1897 through 1924 in Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels, Arriving at New York, NY, 1897-1957, T715, Record Group 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Sample Images
The card index to passenger lists includes the following information:


 * Name of immigrant
 * Accompanied by
 * Age
 * Sex
 * Occupation
 * Nationality
 * Last permanent residence
 * Destination
 * Port of entry
 * Name of vessel
 * Date of arrival

Passenger lists, particularly later lists, include the following information:


 * Names of immigrants and close relatives
 * Age
 * Sex
 * Birthplaces, former residences, and intended destinations
 * Marital status
 * Nationality and race
 * Occupations
 * Date of arrival
 * Port of departure

General Information About These Records
Please note that when you select an image to view, sometimes the manifest includes more than one page and, when you use the "click to enlarge manifest" link, the image that appears is not always the first page of the record. You may need to click on the "previous" or "next" links to view the remaining pages of the full manifest.

The lists consist of large sheets of paper divided into columns and rows. They are usually typewritten and occupy two pages.

Passenger arrival lists, known as customs manifests, date back to 1820. However, the first official emigration station for New York was Castle Garden, located at the tip of lower Manhattan. Congressional action in 1891 resulted in federal immigration officials recording the immigrants’ arrival. After January 1892, passengers arriving in New York debarked at Ellis Island, located east of Manhattan in the New York Harbor. From 1892 to 1924, almost all immigrants entered the United States through the port of New York.

The passenger arrival list was used by legal inspectors at Ellis Island to cross-examine each immigrant during a legal inspection prior to the person being allowed to live in America. Only two percent of the prospective immigrants were denied entry.

The information was supplied by the immigrant or a traveling companion (usually a family member). Incorrect information was occasionally given, or mistakes may have been made when the clerk guessed at the spelling of foreign names. These indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the immigrant
 * Date of entry into the United States

If you do not know this information, check the federal census records after 1900.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "NARA Roll Number" which takes you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

With either search keep in mind:
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example, you can use passenger lists to:


 * Learn an immigrant’s place of origin
 * Confirm their date of arrival
 * Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
 * Find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, or ship manifests

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * If your ancestor had a common name, be sure to look at all the entries for a name before you decide which is correct.
 * Continue to search the passenger lists to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who may have immigrated at the same time.
 * If your ancestor has an uncommon surname, you may want to obtain the passenger list of every person who shares your ancestor’s surname if they lived in the same county or nearby. You may not know how or if they are related, but the information could lead you to more information about your own ancestors.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Check for variant spellings. Realize that the indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings and misinterpretations.
 * Try a different index if there is one for the years needed. You may also need to search the passenger lists year by year.
 * Search the indexes of other port cities.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: