Senegal Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * 1724-1917 France National Overseas Archives, Senegal
 * 1878-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, at Ancestry.com, index and images. ($)
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at FindMyPast; index & images ($)
 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.

British Overseas Subject

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

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

Senegal 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 Senegal

 * In the mid-15th century, the Portuguese landed on the Senegal coastline. Various European powers — Portugal, the Netherlands, and Great Britain — competed for trade in the area from the 15th century onward.
 * In 1677, France gained control of what had become a minor departure point in the Atlantic slave trade: the island of Gorée next to modern Dakar, used as a base to purchase slaves from the warring chiefdoms on the mainland.
 * European missionaries introduced Christianity to Senegal and the Casamance in the 19th century.
 * It was only in the 1850s that the French began to expand onto the Senegalese mainland, after they abolished slavery and began promoting an abolitionist doctrine, adding native kingdoms like the Waalo, Cayor, Baol, and Jolof Empire.
 * French colonists progressively invaded and took over all the kingdoms, except Siné and Saloum.

Emigration From Senegal
KNOMAD Statistics: Emigrants: 540,400. Top destination countries: France, The Gambia, Italy, Spain, Mauritania, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, Mali, the Republic of Congo