California, San Francisco, Register of Chinese Immigrant Court Cases and Foreign Seamen Tax Cards - FamilySearch Historical Records

What Is in the Collection?
This collection contains a register of court cases related to Chinese immigrants arriving at or departing from San Francisco, California for the years 1883 to 1916. It also contains tax cards of foreign crew members examined at San Francisco, California for the years 1921 to 1924.

The court case index cards are arranged numerically by court case number. The tax cards are arranged numerically by ship arrival number. These records correspond with NARA publication A3381 part of Records Group 85 Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The court case index cards usually list the name of the petitioner, claimant, or defendant.

The tax cards may contain any of the following:


 * Name
 * Sex
 * Age
 * Marital status
 * Head tax status
 * Citizenship
 * Race
 * Place of last permanent residence
 * Destination
 * Port and date of arrival
 * Purpose for entering the U.S.

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search, it is helpful to know at least some of the following:
 * The full name of your ancestor.
 * The age or birth date of your ancestor.
 * The approximate date of immigration.
 * The port of arrival or departure.

You can search the index or view the images or both. Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:


 * Name of the person
 * The approximate age or date of immigration

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

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page.
 * 1) Select NARA Roll Number - Contents

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

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

What Do I Do Next?
Indexes and transcriptions may not include all the data found in the original records. Look at the actual image of the record, if you can, to verify the information and to find additional information.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information found in the record to find other [San Francisco International Airport] such as emigrations, port records, and ship’s manifests.
 * Use the record to learn your ancestor’s foreign and “Americanized” names, if they were different.
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in the United States Census, 1900 (FamilySearch Historical Records) or the United States Census, 1930 (FamilySearch Historical Records). Search the state censuses as well.
 * Search for death or burial information in BillionGraves Index.
 * If applicable, search for military records as well.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.

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

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching other possible localities or ports of entry.
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Look for the Declaration of Intent soon after the immigrant arrived. Then look for the Naturalization Petition five years later, when the residency requirement would have been met. Look for naturalization records in federal courts, then in state, county, or city courts. An individual may have filed the first and final papers in different courts and sometimes in a different state if the person moved. Immigrants who were younger than 18 when they arrived did not need to file a Declaration of Intent as part of the process.
 * Check the infobox above for additional FamilySearch websites and related websites that may assist you in finding similar records.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation:

Record Citation: Image Citation:

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