Find your ancestors in Michigan, Detroit Passenger Lists, 1900-1965

Learn more about your family members who crossed into the United States through the city of Detroit in Michigan, in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Discover key details about your ancestors like their birth place and their date of arrival in the country.

What can these records tell me?

There are more than 765,000 records in this collection, and each includes a transcript and an image of the original passenger list for people arriving in the port of Detroit, Michigan over a 50 year period. While the information for each person may vary, Michigan, Detroit Passenger Lists 1900-1965 usually provides:

  • First and last name
  • Age
  • Birth year
  • Birth place/nationality
  • Arrival date


    • Discover more about Michigan, Detroit Passenger Lists, 1900-1965

    Since its founding in 1701, the city of Detroit, Michigan, has been an important crossing point separating Lake Erie and Lake Huron and eventually, the United States and Canada. Furthermore, as a major city, Detroit has drawn people from across the world, especially as the city became a manufacturing center in the early 1900s. Thousands of people who traveled in and out of the port of Detroit are documented in these passenger lists, creating a detailed picture of the Motor City in the first half of the 20th century.

    Use these records to uncover new information about your family members and help you to continue researching your family history. Once you discover the record for your ancestor, use the newly found details to help expand your research into our other collections, like Michigan newspapers and US military records.