The Gambia Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * 1878-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, at Ancestry.com, index and images. ($)
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at Findmypast; index & images ($)
 * 1892-1924 New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Search results for Gambia


 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Gambia, index & images ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Gambia, index & images ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, Gambia, index & images ($)

Finding the Town of Origin in the Gambia
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Gambia, see The Gambia Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

The Gambia Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into the the Gambia

 * The Gambia shares historical roots with many other West African nations in the slave trade, which was the key factor in the placing and keeping of a colony on the Gambia River, first by the Portuguese, during which era it was known as A Gâmbia.
 * During the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century, the British Empire and the French Empire struggled continually for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal River and the Gambia River.
 * Later, on 25 May 1765. The Gambia made a part of the British Empire when the government formally assumed control, establishing the Gambia Colony and Protectorate.
 * In 1965, the Gambia gained independence.
 * The roughly 3,500 non-African residents include Europeans and families of Lebanese origin (0.23% of the total population). Most of the European minority is British, although many of the British left after independence.

Emigration From the Gambia
KNOMAD Statistics: Emigrants:71,000+. Top destination countries: Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Nigeria, Sweden, Senegal, Germany, Sierra Leone, France, Guinea Bissau.
 * As many as three million people may have been taken as slaves from this general region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many people were taken as slaves by intertribal wars or Muslim traders before the transatlantic slave trade began. Most of those taken were sold by other Africans to Europeans: some were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were victims sold because of unpaid debts, and many others were simply victims of kidnapping.
 * Traders initially sent people to Europe to work as servants until the market for labour expanded in the West Indies and North America in the 18th century. In 1807, the United Kingdom abolished the slave trade throughout its empire. It also tried, unsuccessfully, to end the slave trade in the Gambia. *Slave ships intercepted by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron in the Atlantic were also returned to the Gambia, with people who had been slaves released on MacCarthy Island far up the Gambia River where they were expected to establish new lives.