California, Los Angeles and San Pedro, Passenger Lists - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States California Los Angeles County

What is in the Collection?
This collection contains passenger lists of vessels temporarily arriving at Los Angeles and San Pedro, California, March 1920-January 1949. After such, the vessels continued on to their final destinations either to a United States port or foreign port. The final destination of the vessel is indicated on the record. These records correspond with NARA publication A3385 and were filmed at the NARA facility in College Park, Maryland.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Passenger Lists may contain the following information:


 * Full name
 * Age
 * Gender
 * Marital status
 * Occupation
 * Citizenship
 * Race
 * Last permanent residence
 * Birthplace
 * Final destination

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 approximate date of immigration
 * The age of your ancestor
 * The birth place of your ancestor

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

Compare the information on the image to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several images before you find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page then select the appropriate NARA Roll Number.

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

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use information in the record to find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, ship’s manifests, birth, christening, marriage, or census records.
 * Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
 * Use the information in each record to find additional family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family member’s records to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

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

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of California, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the California Archives and Libraries.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Image Citation