Massachusetts, Suffolk, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1891

What is in This Collection?

This collection contains passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, 1820-1891 corresponds to NARA microfilm publication M277 part of Record Group 36 Records of the U.S. Customs Service. The passenger lists are arranged by the arrival date of the ship and cover arrivals from September 2, 1820 to March 31, 1874 and January 1, 1883 to July 29, 1891. Missing years include 1855 to 1856 and April 1, 1875-Dec 31, 1882.

• Related Collection
• Massachusetts State Archives. Registers of passengers arriving in Massachusetts ports, 1848-1891

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1891.

Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1848-1891, corresponds to NARA publication M265 part of Record Group 36 Records of the U.S. Customs Service. The index was created by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s from passenger lists located at the Massachusetts State Archives.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Name of passenger Age Gender Occupation Birthplace or last residence Country of citizenship

Intended final destination Date and port of departure Date and port of arrival Name of Ship

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  Massachusetts, Boston Passenger List: M277

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  1885 Index Card: M265

The lists consist of large sheets of paper divided into columns and rows. Earlier lists are handwritten, while most after 1917 are typewritten. Lists after 1906 usually occupy two pages.

Passenger arrival lists, known as customs manifests, date back to 1820. The Immigration Act of 1882 mandated the creation of ship manifests. The Immigration Act of 1891 specified ship's captain was to submit a list of passengers for examination by officials and required medical examination of all persons on board.

The passenger arrival list was used by legal inspectors to question each immigrant during a legal inspection prior to the person being allowed to live in America. Only two percent of the prospective immigrants were denied entry.

The information was supplied by the immigrant or a traveling companion (usually a family member). Incorrect information was occasionally given, or mistakes may have been made when the clerk recorded the name.

Digital Folder Number List

Massachusetts, Index to Boston Passenger Lists, 1848-1891

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. The list does not contain any description of the DGS folder's content. A table listing each DGS number and its contents can be found at Massachusetts, Index to Boston Passenger Lists Digital Folder Number List.

Inventory

For a list of all the titles included in this Historical Records publication see Massachusetts, Boston, Passenger Lists - Inventory