San Francisco Passenger Lists

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San Francisco Passenger Lists

Description:

This database is an index to the passenger lists of ships arriving from foreign ports at the port of San Francisco. When completed this index will cover the years 1893-1953. In addition, the names found in the index are linked to actual images of the passenger lists, copied from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm, M1410, rolls 1-429.

Information contained in the index includes given name, surname, age, gender, ethnicity, nationality or last country of permanent residence, arrival date, port of arrival, port of departure and ship name. If a name of a friend or relative whom the individual was going to join with, or a place of nativity was provided, that information is included in the index as well. Many of these items may be used to search the index in the search template above.

It is important to note that the port of departure listed on these passenger lists is not always the original port of departure for these individuals. A ship could make several voyages throughout the year, making several stops along way. Oft times the port of departure found on these lists is the most recent port the ship was located at prior to arriving at the port of San Francisco. Therefore, if your ancestors emigrated to the U.S. from Australia, they could be found on a passenger list coming from Honolulu, Hawaii (if, in this case, the ship left from Sydney, Australia then continued on to Honolulu, Hawaii before arriving in San Francisco).

The microcopies of the passenger lists found at NARA are arranged chronologically by arrival date of vessel. If you do not wish to search this database using the search template, the images may be browsed following the chronological arrangement provided by NARA. To browse the images first select the "Year" in which you would like to search, followed by the "Month", and finally the "Ship Name".