Websites new to our list for 2022 are indicated by an asterisk (*). Sites marked with a dollar sign ($) require a subscription or other payment to fully take advantage of their content; otherwise free sites that have some sort of premium tier or paid add-on have this noted in the write-ups.
All summaries written by David Fryxell
Before there was Ellis Island, America’s first immigration center welcomed 8 million passengers to the port of New York from 1855 to 1890. Check this database (which includes records from as early as 1820) to see if your ancestors were among them.
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Even if your Midwestern family didn’t live in Cook County (home of the city of Chicago), they may have been naturalized there. Find out in this searchable database of more than 500,000 naturalization documents covering 1871 to 1929—primarily declarations of intention, which may be the only public record of an individual immigrant.
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This expansive Harvard site documents the nation’s immigration history—especially the 19th-century waves of immigrants—with more than 400,000 pages from 2,200 books, pamphlets and serials; 9,600 pages from manuscript and archival collections; and more than 7,800 photographs.
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Skip the glossy home page and zip right to this main search form, where you can look for ancestors among 65 million records of arrivals through the Port of New York.
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