Texas, Maverick, Eagle Pass Arrival Manifests and Indexes, 1905-1954

What is in This Collection?

The Texas, Eagle Pass Arrival Manifests and Indexes, 1905–1954 correlates with two National Archives and Records Administration(NARA) microfilm publications: Indexes to Manifests of Permanent and Statistical Arrivals at Eagle Pass, Texas, December 1, 1929 - June 1953., M2040 and Permanent and Statistical Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Eagle Pass, Texas, June 1905 - June 1953., M1755. Microfilm publication M2040 is index cards for the years 1929–1953 for the Card Manifests on microfilm publication M1755. The index cards are arranged alphabetically and contain information such as name, age, date of crossing and manifest card number to assist in locating a card manifest in microfilm publication M1755. The card manifests located on microfilm publication M1755 cover the years 1905–1953 and are arrange chronologically. These microfilm publications are part of Record Group Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

General Information about Land Border Crossings and Card Manifests

The United States Customs Service (Customs) collected records on immigration through collection districts and regional customhouses. Customs required that the captain of a ship arriving at a United States port from a foreign port to submit a list of passengers to the collector of customs. Early records originated at the customshouses and were for statistical purposes only. On 3 August 1882, the United States Congress passed the first law regulating immigration. From 1882–1891, the Secretary of the Treasury had general supervision over immigration and the Office of Superintendent of Immigration was established in the department of the Treasury. This office was later designated a bureau and eventually became the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, after naturalization functions were added to the bureau, and then Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). Treatment of land borders has been different as keeping statistics on Unites States land borders was not required by early immigration acts. Land border records began being kept on the Canadian border in 1895 and on the Mexican border in 1906. When records began being kept for land borders, immigration authorities found that it was impractical to collect arrival information on lists as it was done for ship passengers; therefore, immigration authorities started using card manifests for each person. These cards contained the same information as ship passenger lists such as name, age, sex, marital status, birth place, physical description, occupation, citizenship or nationality, reason for entry, place of last permanent residency, literacy and language of literacy, and whether the immigrant intended on become a citizen of the United States or returning to their country of origin.

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

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What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Contents

Sample Images

• Texas, Eagle Pass Arrival Manifests and Indexes Examples
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  Index

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  1905 Arrival Manifest

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  1929 Arrival Manifest