Emigration to the USA

If you are searching for information about how ancestors came to the United States as emigrants, there are two main search engines, depending on what period the emigration occurred.

America's first emigration center was Castle Garden, and it operated until 1892, when Ellis Island opened. CastleGarden.org, an educational project of The Battery Conservancy, is a free site that offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 11 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. More than 100 million Americans can trace their ancestors to this early immigration period.

You can also search for ancestors who came through Ellis Island, between 1892 and 1924, at Ellis Island

You also can search both these records in one step at Jewish Gen

 

Very useful. Thank you. I have an ancestor that popped over for two generations and then came back. I have no idea why? It was further back than the dates you have given, though, so i will have to look else where? The links are still interesting though

 

Hi there

So - was there another place that a chap might register on arrival in US ? I have a fellow who got on a boat here in England on his way to New York, in 1838 - and was apparently never seen again
I have the ship, the embarkation port, the date of arrival in New York, his name, age and occupation, all recorded on the ships manifest. And that's the last I see of him. Do you think he went over-board ? Could he have just got off the boat and vanished ? Well - obviously the answer to that is yes !

 

Don't forget that many people used other ports than New York - eg. Baltimore or New Orleans. Some in fact went via Canada. Some of the other port records are available online. The Immigrant Ship Transcriber Guild is another site to look at.

 

Thanks - I'll have a look on there - but the boat he was on was destination New York

 

Re-reading your post, I wonder if Castle Gardens actually recorded everyone. 1838 is pretty early. And America was a big country to disappear into. If he went West and got shot or died of cholera etc. I suspect there'd not be much record - maybe true in New York too! I think the 1840 US census recorded head of household only, which doesn't help. US Vital Records aren't easy as they're all delegated to the State. I don't know when registration commenced - so I Googled "In general, vital records weren't kept in the United States until the early 1900s", quoted from http://www.vitalrec.com/ That doesn't help much either. Sorry!

 

Well, so far as I can tell, he went there in 1838 but does not show up on 1840, 1850 or 1860 census. And since I have no idea which state he went to - I'm stoofed for the moment

 

I have had difficulty finding Hannah Armitage going to the States. I have found her married on the 1850 US census but as yet no migration record, including Ancestry and Find My Past . I do have a newspaper record , no luck searching on that (although found some of the Lawton family migrating to Pennsylvania) which says she was the niece of a John Lawton monumental mason - they all lived in Pennsylvania - we have a beneficiary list which ties the family together from Hannah her brother, my great grandfather in Yorkshire but still no luck on her migration date which I assume could be after her mother died in 1847.

 

Ancestry and FMP has later ones. Apologies I should have made it clear that I found her on the 185o US census married to Peter Charles Reniers - a BIG reminder apropo Peter and others that we need to include all we know when we post about a person. Sorry Tim and all

 

Peter I think you are right with my Hannah, I have explored many destinations and am still looking @ them all. Hannah's brother Thomas died intestate in Pennsylvania.
Unless the lawyers in Pittsburgh and Huddersfield, after spending a lot of money in 1920s, got the beneficiary list wrong ( we have the list) , then I know Hannah was in Pennsylvania married to Peter Charles Reniers in 1850. But when did she go there and who was the Uncle Lawton s written about in a newspaper article about her marriage to PR ? Peter Reniers and Hannah's half brother Thomas Henry Stork were stone masons owning businesses and Peter R's stone art is to be seen in Pennsylvania to this day - Thomas was intestate when he died and according to Pennsylvania law half went to his brother and sisters and or families - my paternal grandfather, according to my mother only got four shillings Not sure he was pleased about that He is listed on the beneficiary list but no monetary value next to his share!

 

Well - based on these previous comments it seems I'm even less likely to find George Ledsham; all I have is him on the boat's passenger list and it seems I may be wrong in thinking that he actually went to America ! Having said that, he doesn't appear to have been in England either !

 

Tim Hannah was born 15 November 1829 - she is with father Geo, mother Mary and siblings in 1841 ( Listed on Lost Cousins) she was married to Peter Reniers and on the 1850 US census. Her father died in 1842 and mother in 1847. A Pennsylvania article on her marriage to Peter R mentions an Uncle John Lawton. Peter R and Lawton were monumental stone masons, with Peter also having sculptures around Pennsylvania. We have found a Matthew Lawton stone mason going to Pennsylvania who appears to be related by marriage to Hannah. He went at a different time. So time line, something between 1841 and 1850 - Lawtons are a clue? Ancestry does go back further if one searches US and also various ports.
A note - When I was sent Thomas Henry Stork Armitage's (half brother to my great great grandfather ) beneficiary list in 2007 ( another story happy to tell sometime) it confirmed the research I had done on my own - now I have at least two cousins in the US - and both interested in family history)

 

I would love to find a resource which helps pinpoint when a ggggrandfather emigrated to the USA from England, some time before 1852. Neither hide nor hair....
He first shows up in Wisconsin, with the birth of his first child (unless there were earlier ones I've not found out about).

 

Records are sketchy at best - have you tried the Immigrant Ships Guild I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread?

 

Oops, I did miss that link, thank you for drawing my attention to it. Looks like it will take a bit to negotiate around the site but search it I will.

 

It's interesting, isn't? We expect them to leave Britain and then stay in North America, but they don't. My gg grandfather Edward Armstrong first arrived in the USA in 1853 entering through Boston. After his marriage and birth of a daughter he and his wife went back to Northumberland and then Cheshire for several years and the birth of two more children. They then all 5 returned to Connecticut in 1866 entering through New York. It appears that Edward and his son Henry returned to England about 10 years later, and then returned to the US in 1876, entering through New York.
Edward's wife Ann travelled with her family to Connecticut from Cheshire in 1854 entering through New York. She and one brother married and stayed in Connecticut but her parents and another brother returned to Cheshire, where they ran a successful family business.