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

United States CaliforniaSan Francisco County

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 this Collection 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 one 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.

If you do not know this information, check the census records after 1900. Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information in the list to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several persons in the list before you find your ancestor.

Search by Name by visiting the Page:

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 "NARA Roll Number - Contents" which takes you to the images.

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 the name, residence, and approximate birth date to locate your ancestor in church, land, and census records.
 * Use occupations to find military records.
 * Use the naturalization information to find immigration and naturalization court documents which lead to the country of origin. Then search for records in the country of origin.
 * 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.

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