Search United States, Passenger and Crew Lists

With every result you will find a transcript, this is a typed document with the vital details found in the records. Many of the records will provide an image of the original passenger or crew lists for you to review. The images often provide you with even more detail about your ancestors.

• Name
• Sex
• Age
• Birth year
• Birth place
• Nationality
• Race or Heritage
• If they were able to read or write
• Arrival year
• Ship name
• Arrival State
• Arrival country
• Collection – the name of the original record collection
• NARA roll number
• NARA publication title
• Film number

Images

Earlier records are handwritten, while later ones are typed. Within the images you might discover who your ancestor was travelling with, your ancestor’s occupation, last permanent residence, physical description, and the lists also recorded the names of those who died during the voyage. On crew lists, you may discover your ancestors position on the ship, whether they were able to read or write, length of service, as well as a physical description. You may even find signed affidavits from ship captains, officers, or physicians.

In some cases, you will notice that location abbreviations may be outdated; for example, you may see L.I. for Long Island, California or Neb. for Nebraska.

This extensive collection of migration records includes ship manifests kept by shipmasters, crew lists, flight manifests, passenger arrival lists, and more. The numerous lists document the arrival of millions of immigrant from Europe, Asia, and South America into America, where most created a new life for themselves and their descendants. Findmypast’s national collection of passenger and crew lists has been produced through a combination of historical records found at the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) in Washington D.C. Many of the records are also provided in partnership with the John F Kennedy Trust Ltd, an organization which has worked with the Balch Institute, the Ellis Island Restoration Commission and the Battery Conservancy to compile a comprehensive database of Irish emigration to the United States. A collection of the crew lists was made available by the Mystic Seaport Museum.

Passenger lists are just one of many records that detail your family’s journey to the United States. These records can include errors or mistakes in spellings, occupations, and ages. Birth years in this collection were calculated from an individual’s stated age and the year of immigration. To find more information about your relatives, explore local newspapers, as well as census and vital records. Naturalization records are another useful source, as many immigrants strove to become American citizens, filing papers for their naturalization after their arrival. When researching your own family, remember that some families did not always arrive in a single group. In some cases, the head of a family would travel ahead to prepare the way for his wife and children. While some families continued their journey into America and headed for areas where distant relatives or those from their former homeland had previously settled, many other families stayed in the first city they arrived.

Continue your genealogical research in our collection of United States newspapers or census records. For more information about original passenger lists see The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 3rd Edition, by Val D. Greenwood.