This page includes information sources focused on immigration that can assist genealogical and/or historical research. Resources are grouped into Canadian, United States, and international resources.
Alumni access!
From the century of immigration, through to the modern era, Migration to New Worlds charts the emigration experience of millions across 200 years of turbulent history. Explore the rise and fall of the New Zealand Company, discover British, European and Asian migration and investigate unique primary source personal accounts, shipping logs, printed literature and organisational papers supplemented by carefully compiled teaching and research aids.
Highlights include oral histories of migrants to Canada and the U.S., homestead experiences in Canada, and an interactive migration map that uses census and immigration data sources to show migration to the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over time.
Now the location of the Canadian Museum of Immigration, Pier 21 welcomed nearly 1 million immigrants to Canada and was the last surviving immigration facility in Canada. The museum's digital collection includes oral histories (audio), photographs, and other records.
Notably, all records for arrivals after 1935 are closed to the public.
A research project on Greek immigration into Canada based on interviews with 443 immigrants, including an interactive map, a virtual museum, and a bibliography of several academic works.
Alumni access!
This collection includes letters, diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives of over 2,000 authors providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
The American counterpart of Pier 21, Ellis Island was the busiest immigrant crossing destination in the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century. Free, but registration required to access all records.
The precursor to Ellis Island and America's first official immigration immigration record. The website includes a database of data from ship’s manifests dating from 1820 to 1892.
List of indexes of passenger lists for ships that sailed to the United States from 1820 to the 1950s including microfilm, books, and online indexes and databases.
The National Archives has passenger arrival records for arrivals to the U.S. from foreign ports from 1820-1982 (with gaps). The records are arranged by port or airport of arrival. Note: only records older than 75 years are publicly available; many of these have been digitized by National Archives partners.
Subcollection Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 presents the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS's regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.
Includes multiple sub-collections in broad subject areas like Civil Rights; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society; International Relations and Military Conflicts; Women's Studies; and Workers and Labor Unions