To find your ancestors’ immigration records, start by collecting their name, approximate year of arrival, age and country of origin from family papers and census records, then search passenger lists for the port where they landed. Arrivals at Ellis Island and the Port of New York from 1892 to 1957 can be searched free on the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation’s website, and FamilySearch offers free passenger list collections for other ports. Naturalization records, which can add arrival details and a hometown, come next.
This guide sets out the order to work in, which records exist for which years, and how to fill the gaps when a name will not turn up.
Start With What the Family Already Knows
The National Park Service, which runs Ellis Island, advises gathering as much information as possible from within your family before you search the records. Aim to establish, for each immigrant:
- Full name as used in the old country, plus any later spellings
- Approximate date of arrival and the port where they landed
- Age at arrival
- Town or region of origin, and the port of departure if known
Look through steamship tickets, naturalization papers, family Bibles, letters, photographs and certificates. Ask relatives directly too; the questions in migration questions to ask immigrant relatives are designed for exactly this conversation.
Use the Census to Find the Arrival Year
If you do not know when someone arrived, United States census records from the early twentieth century often record a year of immigration and whether the person was naturalized. Find your ancestor in each census they appear in and compare the years given; they will not always agree, but together they narrow the window.
Passenger Lists: What Exists and When
The National Archives holds passenger arrival records for arrivals from foreign ports from approximately 1820 onward, with gaps, arranged by port of arrival. Before 1820, lists generally do not exist, apart from a few ports such as New Orleans and Philadelphia for limited years.
What a list contains depends on the year. The National Park Service notes that most nineteenth-century manifests give the vessel, ports, arrival date, and each passenger’s name, age, sex, occupation, country of origin and intended destination. From 1893 manifests added marital status, last residence and final destination, and by the 1920s they recorded many more details about each passenger.
Ellis Island and New York (1892–1957)
The Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation provides free online access to Port of New York manifests for this period at libertyellisfoundation.org.
Other ports
Many people landed at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Galveston, San Francisco or crossed from Canada. The National Archives explains that many of its passenger records have been digitised by partners. FamilySearch is free; Ancestry and Fold3 are subscription services, though they are free to use in National Archives research rooms and many public libraries.
Search Tactics When a Name Will Not Appear
- Try many spellings. The person who wrote the manifest at the port of departure spelled names as they heard them.
- Search by the ship. If you know the vessel, browse its manifests around the expected arrival date.
- Search for a travelling companion: a spouse, sibling or neighbour from the same village.
- Widen the date range by two or three years either side.
- Read both pages. Many manifests span two facing pages; the second page often holds the most useful details.
The National Park Service also notes that it is a myth that names were changed at Ellis Island. If the family name changed, it more likely happened later, by choice or through everyday use. Keep a record of every variant you find; the method in verifying names and spellings in family history helps you track them.
Naturalization Records
Becoming a citizen created its own paper trail, and these documents can name a ship, arrival date and hometown that the passenger list did not.
The National Archives explains that before September 27, 1906, any court of record, whether municipal, county, state or federal, could naturalize someone. There is no central index, so you need to search the courts near where your ancestor lived. Local and state court records are often held by state archives or historical societies.
After that date, records became more standardised. Duplicate records from September 27, 1906 to March 31, 1956 are held in Certificate Files (C-Files), and from April 1, 1956 naturalization records are in Alien Files (A-Files).
The USCIS Genealogy Program
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services runs a fee-for-service Genealogy Program giving access to historical immigration and naturalization records of deceased immigrants. Its record series include C-Files, Alien Registration Forms completed from August 1940 to March 1944, Visa Files and Registry Files. You can request an index search if you do not have a file number; a positive result identifies files by number so you can request copies. Check the USCIS fee schedule for current costs.
Keep Your Findings Organised
Immigration research produces many similar-looking documents for one person: a manifest, perhaps a second manifest for a return trip, census entries, a declaration of intention and a naturalization certificate. Save each image with a consistent filename that includes the person’s name, record type, year and place, for example “Bianchi-Rosa_manifest_1907_New-York”. Note the exact citation: the ship name, arrival date, page and line number.
Build a simple timeline as you go. Lining up the arrival year from the census, the date on the manifest and the dates on naturalization papers quickly shows whether all the records belong to the same person, and highlights any gaps worth investigating, such as a return trip home or a period of work in another country.
Bringing the Story to Life
Records give you facts. The family story gives them meaning. Once you have a manifest, sit with relatives and look at it together: who paid for the ticket, who was waiting at the destination, what the person carried. Write down what you learn and record the conversation. The guide to preserving immigration stories shows how to combine documents and memories into a single account.
Immigration research is also a strong project to share with children. Tracing a great-grandparent’s journey on a map ties family history to wider history, an approach set out in this guide to teaching history at home through local stories.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find out what ship my ancestor came on?
Check naturalization papers, which can record arrival details. Family documents such as tickets and letters can also mention it. Otherwise, search passenger lists by name, age and approximate arrival year.
Are Ellis Island records free?
Yes. The Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation’s online database of Port of New York arrivals from 1892 to 1957 can be searched free of charge online, according to the National Park Service.
What if my ancestor arrived before 1820?
Few passenger lists survive from that period. Look instead at printed indexes, newspapers, naturalization records, land records and church records in the place they settled.
Were immigrant names changed at Ellis Island?
The National Park Service describes this as a myth. Name changes usually happened later, often when the person or their children chose a more familiar spelling.
Where are naturalization records kept?
Before September 1906, in the records of whichever court handled the case, often now at a state archive or the National Archives. From 1906 to 1956, duplicates are in USCIS Certificate Files; later records are in A-Files.