Alabama Emigration and Immigration

United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records

Online Resources

 * 1500s-1900s All U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s at Ancestry; index ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama; Also at MyHeritage; index ($)
 * 1820-1835 Atlantic Ports, Gulf Coasts, and Great Lakes Passenger Lists, Roll 7:1820-1835 at Ancestry; index ($)
 * 1820-1870 Atlantic Ports, Gulf Coasts, and Great Lakes Passenger Lists, Roll 4:1820-1870 at Ancestry; index ($)
 * 1820-1870 Atlantic and Gulf Ports, Passenger List Card Index, 1820-1870 at MyHeritage; index and images ($)
 * 1820-1874 at FamilySearch; index and images - How to Use this Collection
 * 1821-1822 Mobile ship news at FamilySearch; images
 * 1845-1849 Atlantic Ports, Gulf Coasts, and Great Lakes Passenger Lists, Roll 8:1845-1849 at Ancestry; index ($)
 * 1890-1924 Index to passenger lists of vessels arriving at ports in Alabama 1890-1924 at FamilySearch; images
 * 1895-1956 United States, Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956 at MyHeritage; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama
 * 1895-1964 All U.S., Border Crossings from Mexico to U.S., 1895-1964 at Ancestry; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama
 * 1904-1962 Alabama, U.S., Arriving Passenger Lists, 1904-1962 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild at MyHeritage; index ($)
 * Anglos and Anglo-Americans in Early Alabama

Cultural Groups

 * 1920-1939 Germany, Bremen Emigration Lists, 1920-1939 at MyHeritage; index ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama
 * Germans Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama
 * Italians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama
 * Russians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index ($); includes those with Destination of Alabama

Passport Records Online

 * 1795-1925 at FamilySearch; index and images — How to Use this Collection
 * 1795-1925 U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 at Ancestry; index and images ($)

Offices to Contact
Although many records are included in the online records listed above, there are other records available through these archives and offices. For example, there are many minor ports that have not yet been digitized. There are also records for more recent time periods. For privacy reasons, some records can only be accessed after providing proof that your ancestor is now deceased.

National Archives and Records Administration

 * 1820-1982 National Archives (NARA) The records are arranged by Port of Arrival (See Part 5)
 * You may do research in immigration records in person at the National Archives Building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001.


 * Some National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regional facilities have selected immigration records; call to verify their availability or check the online Microfilm Catalog.
 * Libraries with large genealogical collections, such as the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and the Allen County Piblic Library also have selected NARA microfilm publications.
 * Order copies of passenger arrival records with NATF Form 81.

Alabama Ports in NARA Records

 * Mobile, Alabama, 1832-1852 and 1890-1924

U.S. Citizenship and and Immigration Services Genealogy Program
The USCIS Genealogy Program is a fee-for-service program that provides researchers with timely access to historical immigration and naturalization records of deceased immigrants. If the immigrant was born less than 100 years ago, you will also need to provide proof of his/her death.

Immigration Records Available

 * A-Files: Immigrant Files, (A-Files) are the individual alien case files, which became the official file for all immigration records created or consolidated since April 1, 1944.
 * Alien Registration Forms (AR-2s): Alien Registration Forms (Form AR-2) are copies of approximately 5.5 million Alien Registration Forms completed by all aliens age 14 and older, residing in or entering the United States between August 1, 1940 and March 31, 1944.
 * Registry Files:''' Registry Files are records, which document the creation of immigrant arrival records for persons who entered the United States prior to July 1, 1924, and for whom no arrival record could later be found.
 * Files:''' Visa Files are original arrival records of immigrants admitted for permanent residence under provisions of the Immigration Act of 1924.

Requesting a Record

 * Web Request Page allows you to request a records, pay fees, and upload supporting documents (proof of death).
 * Record Requests Frequently Asked Questions

Finding Town of Origin
Records in the countries emigrated from are kept on the local level. You must first identify the name of the town where your ancestors lived to access those records. If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin

Background

 * During the early 1700s, some French and Spanish families immigrated to the southern coastal area, but most pre-statehood settlers of Alabama came from the older southern states, especially North Carolina and Georgia.
 * Alabama was a Spanish territory beginning in the sixteenth century.
 * The French acquired it in the early eighteenth century, founding Mobile in 1702. This area was claimed by the French from 1702 to 1763 as part of La Louisiane.
 * After the French lost to the British in the Seven Years' War, it became part of British West Florida from 1763 to 1783.
 * The Scots-Irish were the largest non-English immigrant group from the British Isles before the American Revolution, and many settled in the South, later moving into the Deep South as it was developed.
 * After the United States victory in the American Revolutionary War, the territory was divided between the United States and Spain. Spain retained control of this western territory from 1783 until the surrender of the Spanish garrison at Mobile to U.S. forces on April 13, 1813.
 * Southeastern planters and traders from the Upper South brought slaves with them as the cotton plantations in Alabama expanded. During the antebellum period, Alabama was a major cotton producer and widely used African-American slaves on its plantations.
 * The area also drew many poor, disenfranchised people who became subsistence farmers.
 * The largest reported ancestry groups in Alabama in 2010 are: American (13.4%), Irish (10.5%), English (10.2%), German (7.9%), and Scots-Irish (2.5%).

Immigration Records
Immigration refers to people coming into a country. Emigration refers to people leaving a country to go to another. Immigration records usually take the form of ship's passenger lists collected at the port of entry. See Online Resources.

Information in Passenger Lists

 * Before 1820 - Passenger lists before 1820 included name, departure information and arrival details. The names of wives and children were often not included.


 * 1820-1891 - Customs Passenger Lists between 1820 and 1891 asked for each immigrant’s name, their age, their sex, their occupation, and their country of origin, but not the city or town of origin.


 * 1891-1954 - Information given on passenger lists from 1891 to 1954 included:
 * name, age, sex,
 * nationality, occupation, marital status,
 * last residence, final destination in the U.S.,
 * whether they had been to the U.S. before (and if so, when, where and how long),
 * if joining a relative, who this person was, where they lived, and their relationship,
 * whether able to read and write,
 * whether in possession of a train ticket to their final destination, who paid for the passage,
 * amount of money the immigrant had in their possession,
 * whether the passenger had ever been in prison, a poorhouse, or in an institution for the insane,
 * whether the passenger was a polygamist,
 * and immigrant's state of health.


 * 1906-- - In 1906, the physical description and place of birth were included, and a year later, the name and address of the passenger’s closest living relative in the country of origin was included.

Information in Passports
Over the years, passports and passport applications contained different amounts of information about the passport applicant. The first passports that are available begin in 1795. These usually contained the individual's name, description of individual, and age. More information was required on later passport applications, such as:


 * Birthplace
 * Birth date
 * Naturalization information
 * Arrival information, if foreign born

For Further Reading
The FamilySearch Library has additional sources listed in their catalog: