Netherlands, Passenger Lists Holland-America Line, 1900-1974

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of passenger lists 1900 to 1974 for the Holland-America Line (Holland Amerika Lijn), which transported numerous refugees from war-torn Europe to the United States prior to 1941. The passenger lists show the name of the ship, its destination, and the date it left port. The passenger's name is included, along with various details of passage arrangements, fees, etc. Passenger lists are available from 3 May 1900 through 14 October 1974. The data in these records is only as reliable as the person who gave the information; the spelling depended on the recorder.

It was necessary to keep a record of all the passengers boarding on to the company’s different steamships traveling from the Netherlands to North America. These passenger lists are from the voyages of the Holland-America Line, a Dutch steamship company that covered transatlantic routes, mainly between the ports of Rotterdam and New York, and occasionally calling on the ports of Boulogne-sur-mer, Plymouth, Southampton, Boston and Halifax. The names of the vessels were: Potsdam, Rotterdam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Statendam, Ryndam, Veendam, and Volendam.

This collection is being published as images become available. The text is handwritten in Dutch in a ledger type register. Passengers are listed by passage contract number. For a list of records by localities and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browse link from the collection details page.

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

Reading These Records

These records are written in Dutch. For help reading them see:

• Netherlands Languages
• Dutch Genealogical Word List
• Netherlands Handwriting
• Reading Dutch Records (PDF): Birth, Marriage, Death

FamilySearch Learning Center:

• Beginner Dutch Handwriting
• Names in Belgium and the Netherlands
• Search Classes in the Learning Center for classes with "Dutch" in the title

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for Netherlands, Passenger Lists Holland-America Line, 1900-1974.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

Passenger lists may contain the following information: