New York Ship Manifests --- 1902-1956

When you think of immigrant ancestors arriving in the 20th century, you mostly think of Ellis Island in New York City. Yet, many immigrants actually arrived at other ports in the state of New York. In Buffalo, Lewiston, Niagra Falls, Rochester, Hogansburg, Malone, Morristown, Nyando, Ogdensburg, Rooseveltown, and Waddington, New York, these were all ports of entry for immigrants.

At the FamilySearch.org online site they now have the collection of manifests for ships arriving at these 11 ports. Your relatives may have well arrived on a ship at the Rochester port and you never knew it. Using the search box on the FamilySearch.org site to see if this happened, especially if you never located which port your ancestors arrived at in the first half of the 20th century. 

Put in a surname or a full name in the search box. A selection will appear. To the far right is a preview tab to click on to learn some general information on the person selected. It will give the person’s birth year, the date of entry, and their nationality.

To see more details on the ship manifest, click on the name. Most have scanned images of the actual documents. There will be the actual port name, and exact full date of entry. Check everything page that is shown and even the next page.  

Be sure to research any additional names listed on the manifest, even if you don’t recognize the name, check it out. I had one relative with a listing of two different surnames with additional information. If the person had been in America, left on an overseas trip and then reentered, they would be on the manifest, because they were not a citizen. This database is of aliens, non-citizens.

This is an easy database to check, free and the documents can be downloaded to your computer.

Photos: Manifest document on Edward Kershaw (Slater), born 1902 and reentered America at the Niagara Falls port in 1936.