pre Ellis Island

[Ann12]

Hi all,

I know that this link has been posted somewhere before (sorry, I cant exactly remember where, but I think it was by Berlin -Bob)  it is a site worth repeating for those of you interested in immigration to the states pre Ellis Island.

www.castlegarden.org

Anna

[Su]

Thanks Anne
It is a very interesting and helpful site.

Kind regards
Su

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi,

Did I post this site ?? If so, then I am just one of several RootsChatters who have posted it.

Just for information:

In the middle of the 19th. century, New York was the main entry point for thousands of immigrants ( in 1854 more than 200,000 germans, for instance) so in 1855 the authorities opened up the first "Immigration Centre" at the southern tip of Manhatten, Castle Gardens

In 1892 this was moved to Ellis Island.

Bob

[Su]

Out of interest Bob, would you know which port of entry someone would arrive at who was on their way to Missouri, and Tennessee...would it be New Orleans do you think?  This would be abt. 1850.

Su

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Su,

Sorry, but I don't know.  I only know about Castle Gardens, etc. as I was reading an article in a german magazine about emigrants to America

New Orleans sounds a good bet, I would guess that too.

But it is only guessing 

Bob

[cfuller]

If someone applied for naturalization then the port of arrival as well as date of arrival is on the application for naturalization, but not the ship. These document should be on file with the local county in which application was made.

Information of availability at the national level is listed at
www.archives.gov  (search naturalization).  The records themselves are not available on line.

My relatives that arrived in 1850's did not apply for naturalization until late 1880's.  So, one might need to know where they lived many years after arrival to find the application papers.

[eillo]

There are indexes to ships passenger lists for most ports
for the time period after 1820. The only exception is New York.

You can get a list of film numbers (NARA & FHC) at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nara_indexbyport.shtml

Scroll down to the state you want and click on the link,
then find the film # you need, then decide whether to order
it in to a nearby FHC or have NARA do a lookup.

The staff of the National Archives will undertake a search
of the original records for a fee.

To find your nearest FHC you can go to
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

You might also want to try naturalization records, if you
need to narrow your time span for looking. There are great
clues in the 1870 census! If your ancestor has a check mark
in the  column "Male Citizens of the United States of
twenty-one years of age and upwards"  you have a clue that
naturalization took place before 1870 :-)

To find out what questions were asked on various census
records see
http://allcensusrecords.com/usa/

There is an explanation and Resource Guide to
Naturalization Records at http://naturalizationrecords.com/

There are also many links to searchable online
naturalization records at
http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/

Choose your state of interest from the list at the bottom of
the page then click on ONLINE records.

[eillo]

I know that this link has been posted somewhere before (sorry, I cant exactly remember where, but I think it was by Berlin -Bob)  it is a site worth repeating for those of you interested in immigration to the states pre Ellis Island.

www.castlegarden.org

I recommend using Steve morse's ONE STEP search engine to search castlegarden.org. It's far better!

http://www.stevemorse.org/

Also a caveat -- CG.org website is NOT complete *and* it has ships that arrived at ports other than Castle Garden NY - but they aren't labelled as such. So be cautious...

Steve M. also has a ONE STEP to seach Ancestry's CG database, which is complete.

[eillo]

Out of interest Bob, would you know which port of entry someone would arrive at who was on their way to Missouri, and Tennessee...would it be New Orleans do you think?  This would be abt. 1850.

Su,

There's a website that explains how to figure out what port of arrival an ancestor might have used -- see http://www.shipslists-online.rootschat.net/  Just click on the linked text "Do you need to find the immigration year or port of arrival in America for your immigrant ancestor?"

Also see my note on this thread about microfilmed indexes for all ports except NY. Another thing to remember is that it was cheaper to come in via Canada, so many immigrants did just that.