How do you find ship passenger lists?

Search ship passenger lists and detailed immigration data with online resources such as OliveTreeGenealogy.com and TheShipsList.com. Alternatively, if you know specific details about passengers, search for passengers on Ancestry.com by providing details such as gender, race, and departure and arrival dates.

Ship passenger lists are the primary resource for information regarding ancestors' immigration dates. Other common information included on ships lists includes a person's age, occupation, and sometimes their reason for immigration. Port officials only standardized ship lists in the early 20th century, however, so older archives may not provide complete passenger profiles. Visit the website of the U.S. National Archives, archives.gov, for further links to immigration resources, organized by topic.