USA: genealogical resources to find your ancestors

Discover in this article, some resources to find the trace of your ancestors who left for the United States in the archives ...

©️Gallica - BnF

Le 3 novembre 2020 ont eu lieu les élections présidentielles américaines. Après plusieurs jours de dépouillement des votes, Joe Biden est en passe d'être élu président d’une des plus grandes nations du monde. Une nation fondée suite et par l’immigration de nombreux peuples européens, à l’exception des Indiens déjà présents. Mais le mythe de la « nation d’immigration » datant des années 1660 n’est plus, au profit de la sécurité nationale. 

However, some of your ancestors may have left their country of origin for the United States, to flee depression, war or in search of a better life. Discover these few resources.

List of passengers - Ellis Island

Ellis Island is not only known to shelter the statue of freedom. It is also the New York Island which has long been the gateway to immigrants from around the world who came to try their luck in the United States. 

The Statue of Liberty Foundation - Ellis Island provides a database of more than 65 million passenger registers for free, a gold mine! A search by name and/or first name can put you on the track of your ancestors. 

You will have access to the year (or even the exact date) on the American continent, the age of the person on arrival, the last known residence before immigration or the place of birth, as well as in the name (or even an image) of the boat. 

Create a free account to access even more information: passenger number, visualization of the immigration register and other annotations.

List of passengers - Castle Garden

In the same way as the Ellis Island Foundation, the Castle Garden site offers free access nearly 11 million immigrant registers to the port of New York between 1820 and 1892. We read in the presentation of the site that today, more than 100 million Americans can find the trace of their ancestors who immigrated to the United States during this period. 

Note: on October 30, 2020, research in the base of this site did not seem to work ...

To go further, the site of Stephen P. Morse Available more resources from Ellis Island immigration registers and other important ports.  

Immigration registers - National Archives and Records Administration

Find many documents on the National Archives on the National Archives concerning immigration registers of the 1700s in the early 2000s. 

You can browse the immigration registers, naturalization registers, visa, passport registers, foreign registers. 

Armed yourself with a good translator to fully enjoy this resource. 

Censuses - National Archives and Records Administration

If you do not find the trace of your ancestors in the immigration archives, maybe you will find them in the censuses available on the Nara website? 

Choose the year of the census that interests you, a list of resources appears. Please note, some links can lead to paid resources. 

United States Genealogy - Wiki Familysearch 

Finally, this wiki will be of a great help in your research as it has any information. You have the possibility of doing a search per place or by type of registers. You can immerse yourself in almost all types of existing registers, even the old press and other local resources. 

Again, a good translator helps you to walk at the heart of these useful resources. 

Good research!