Documenting Czech Immigrant Arrivals

Introduction:

Invariably, Czech-American genealogists and family historians reach the point of asking how their ancestors came to America.  Many questions come to mind.  What was the name of the ship?  When did they immigrate?  How long was the voyage?  What did the ship look like?  What was the port of entry?  In answering these questions, a significant amount of research needs to be done.

When Did they Immigrate?

While family tradition can tell you a great deal about your ancestor's immigration to America, you will want to see how much of that tradition can be supported by documentation.  Even with little or no information, you can still proceed with the search.

One of the first things you should do is to check the 1900, 1910, or 1920 censuses.  If you can find and positively identify your ancestors in these censuses, you will have gained some important information because these censuses show the year of immigration to America.  You will also know whether or not your ancestor was naturalized by the year 1900, 1910, or 1920.  These censuses, of course, show all sorts of other data of interest to genealogists such as month and year of birth, the number of years married, the number of children living, and so forth.

If the date of immigration is shown before 1880, then you need to check those intervening censuses.  This will give you some idea of whether your ancestors moved around.  Knowing where your ancestors lived at a particular time will give a clue as to where to look for naturalization records.  Naturalization records are important because they give the name of the port of embarkation, when your ancestor left, and when and where he or she arrived in America.  Before 1906, naturalization proceedings took place in district courthouses, which are located in county seats.  You may need to search different courthouses until you find your ancestor's naturalization record.

Some Czech immigrants did not bother with naturalization.  Others were slow in doing so.  I have one ancestor who came to this county in 1872 as a small child, but he was not naturalized until 1926.  In this case, I found his naturalization papers with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Passenger Lists

After you have identified the port and date of entry, you will want to see if you can find a passenger list for a ship on which your ancestor arrived.  Knowing the particular port through which your ancestor entered the United States may limit the difficulty of your search.

Since the National Archives is the custodian of passenger lists, you should learn what is available.  The Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives is an excellent place to start.  You many also wish to pursue Immigration and Passenger Arrivals:  A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm Publications.  Both are available from the National Archives Trust Fund Board, Washington, D.C.  20408.

There are two kinds of passenger lists.  They are the customs passenger lists and the immigration passenger lists.  Customs passenger lists were prepared by the captains of the ships bringing the immigrants to the United States.  These lists were filed with the collectors of customs in compliance with an Act of Congress approved on March 2, 1819 (3 Stat. 489), and the later acts.  In later years, another kind of list was prepared.  It is called an immigration passenger list.

The important thing to remember about passenger lists is the fact that the captain in required to turn in a list at each port of call in the United States.  The customs passenger lists gave the passenger's name, age, occupation, and county of origin.  The heading gave the date and port of departure as well as the embarkation port and date.

The immigration authorities at the port of entry recopied these passenger lists turned in by the captain of the ship onto a separate document called an "Abstract."  The original passenger list was retained by the immigration authorities at this port of call.  The "Abstracts" were, in later years, placed in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. for safe keeping.  Microfilm copies of those passenger lists and abstracts can be purchased from the National Archives.  In addition, microfilm copies can be rented from a number of sources.

If your ancestor arrived at the Port of Baltimore, you are in luck.  Passenger lists are available for the years 1820-1952.  Best news of all, the passenger lists are indexed.  There are a number of Soundex indices for this period.  The data is available for the years 1820 to 1902.  There is also an index available: T527, 1853-1899.  Immigration passenger lists are available from January 1903 to 1952.  The index (T618, available for 1900-1952 arrivals).

Good data is also available from the port of New York,  Customs passengers lists cover the years 1820-1897.  There is an index (M261) for the years 1820-1846, and there is an index (T519) that begins on June 16, 1897 and ends on June 30, 1902.  In addition, there is a Soundex index (T621) for arrivals between July 1, 1902, and December 31, 1943.  Immigration passenger lists show the town that the immigrant left and where he or she was going in the United States.  So if one of your ancestors immigrated in the 1890's or later, you will have some interesting research possibilities.

Up to now, only passenger lists in America have been discussed.  However, there were passenger list that were left with European authorities.  The most famous of these are the Hamburg passenger lists.  They are available at the Library of Congress and at branch genealogical libraries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (sometimes called the Mormons).

If your ancestors emigrated through Bremen, there are a limited number of problems because the Bremen passenger lists were destroyed.  Even with that, there are still some possibilities.  Copies of some passenger lists were published in the Deutsche Auswanderer-Zeitung. If you wish to pursue this further, you can write to:  Staatsarchive Bremen, President-Kennedy Platz 2, 2800 Bremen 1, Germany.  Some Bremen passenger lists were also published in the Allgemeine Austwanderer-Zeitung even though it was printed in Hamburg.

In the United States, several newspapers published passenger lists that included Czech arrivals.  In Texas these include the Galveston Die Union, the Neu-Braunsfelse-Zeitung, and the Galveston Daily News.  The Nebraska Pokrok Západu carried passenger lists in 1897, and the Wisconsin Slavie also published passenger lists on occasion.

What about the Ship?

If you are interested in learning about the physical details of your immigrant ancestor's ship, the best overall source is Lloyd's Universal Register.  The Library of Congress has a copy of one of these published in 1886.  It was a grand attempt at cataloging all the world's ships over 100 tons.  It divided the ships into two categories:  sailing vessels and steamships.  The Universal Register listed the name of the ship, the material that the vessel was made of, what kind of vessel it was (bark, brig, and so forth), what flag the vessel flew, the port of registry, net tonnage, the vessel's dimensions, the circumstances of its construction, and, finally, who the owners or mangers were.  As a not of caution, Lloyd's has published registers of ships that it insures since the early 1800's, but the Universal Register is totally different because it also includes ships not insured by Lloyd's.

Other good sources are  Passenger Ships of the World past and Present by Eugene W. Smith and Ships of our Ancestors by Michael J. Anuta.

If you are interested in pictures of your immigrant ancestor's ship, you could search naval museums around the world.  However, there is a fair chance you might find a picture of the ship you are looking for at either of the following:

Steamship Historical Society of America, Inc.                                University of Baltimore Library                                                            1420 Maryland Avenue                                                                             Baltimore, Maryland 21201-5782

Peabody Museum                                                                                    East India Square                                                                                          Salem, Massachusetts, 01970

Publications

To date, six books entitled Czech Immigration Passenger Lists, Volumes I-VI have been published.  Volume I lists Czech arrivals in Galveston between 1848 and 1871, as well as Czech arrivals in New Orleans between 1852 and 1879.  There is also a section on Czech arrivals in Baltimore and New York in 1879 based on accounts published in the Nebraska Czech newspaper Pokrok Západu.  Volume II contains the names of Czech arrivals in New Orleans between late 1879 and 1899 and Czech arrivals in Galveston between 1896 and 1906.  Volume III was restricted to Czech arrivals in Galveston between 1906 and 1914.  Volume IV deals with Czech arrivals in New York between 1847-1869.  Volume V lists Czech arrivals in New York between 1870-1880.  Volume VI contains Czech arrivals in New York, 1881-1886, and in Galveston, 1880-1886.  These books contain the names of 104,910 Czech immigrants.  Anyone wishing to obtain copies of these publication should write to me for information concerning price and availability.  My address is:  17o7 Woodcreek, Richardson, Texas, 75082-4524.

Current Research

I am currently completing an abstract of Czech arrivals in New York during 1893.  This will become part of Volume VII which will cover Czech arrivals in New York between 1887 and at least 1893.

Acknowledgments:

This paper was originally presented by Mr. Baca at the 1997 annual meeting and conference of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (Společnost pro vědz a umění, SVU).  It has been published in the book, Czech Americans in Transition, essays edited by Clinton Machann, and published by Eakin Press, Austin, Texas .

Permission to reprint on this web site was given by Mr. Baca on 9/5/01.  I appreciate his willingness to share very, very much.

Susan Rektorik Henley

Home