California, San Francisco Airplane Arrival Card Index - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States CaliforniaSan Francisco County

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of index cards which are arranged by series then chronologically by date of arrival by passenger then alien arrivals. This collection corresponds with NARA publication A3361: Register of Citizen (1943-1947) and Alien (1936-1949) Arrivals by Aircraft at San Francisco, California part of Record Group 85 Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The records generally contain the following:


 * Name
 * Date of birth
 * Place of birth
 * Age
 * Sex
 * Occupation
 * Nationality
 * Address
 * Date of arrival
 * Airport of arrival
 * Airplane number.

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search, it is helpful to know:


 * The full name of your ancestor.
 * The date or place of birth of your ancestor
 * The occupation of your ancestor
 * The approximate date of immigration

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 Collection 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.

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

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor in the card index, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information in the records to find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, ship’s manifests, birth, christening, marriage, and 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:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: