Massachusetts, New Bedford Passenger Lists - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection contains passenger lists of vessels arriving at New Bedford, Massachusetts from 1902-1942. These records correspond with NARA publication T944 and were filmed at the NARA facility in College Park, Maryland.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
These records may contain the following information:
 * Full name
 * Age
 * Gender
 * Marital status
 * Occupation
 * Citizenship
 * Race
 * Last permanent residence
 * Birthplace
 * Final destination

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The full name of your ancestor
 * The approximate age of your ancestor
 * The approximate date of immigration

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

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?
Use passenger lists to:
 * Learn an immigrant’s place of origin
 * Confirm their date of arrival
 * Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
 * Find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, or ship’s manifests
 * Use the age to calculate a birth date
 * Use the name, date, group, and list number to obtain additional immigration information from the National Archives
 * If your ancestor had a common name, be sure to look at all the entries for a name before you decide which is correct.
 * Continue to search the passenger lists to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who may have immigrated at the same time
 * If your ancestor has an uncommon surname, you may want to obtain the passenger list of every person who shares your ancestor’s surname if they lived in the same county or nearby. You may not know how or if they are related, but the information could lead you to more information about your own ancestors
 * When you select an image to view, sometimes the manifest includes more than one page, and when you use the "click to enlarge manifest" link, the image that appears is not always the first page of the record. You may need to click on the "previous" or "next" links to view the remaining pages of the full manifest
 * The information was supplied by the immigrant or a traveling companion (usually a family member). Incorrect information was occasionally given, or mistakes may have been made when the clerk guessed at the spelling of foreign names
 * The passenger arrival list was used by legal inspectors to cross-examine each immigrant during a legal inspection prior to the person being allowed to live in America. Only two percent of the prospective immigrants were denied entry

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names
 * Search the indexes and records of other port cities
 * Look for an index. You may also need to search the passenger lists year by year

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in the state of Massachusetts.
 * Massachusetts Guided Research
 * Massachusetts Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research

Other FamilySearch Collections
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Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.