The New York passenger list records from 1820 through June 15, 1897, are the so-called "Customs Passenger Lists" simply because they were turned in to the Collector of Customs in New York. After June 15, 1897, the lists were the responsibility of the Immigration Service, and those later lists are called "Immigration Passenger Lists". Whether "customs" or 'immigration" lists, they are all simply passenger lists.

Passenger lists were first mandated under an Act of 1819, to commence in 1820. Although only "aliens" were specified to be enumerated, from the beginning the manifests list the names of all passengers, both alien and returning American citizens.

From the lists for most of this period, you will not learn the place of birth or destination in the United States. The lists will provide the names of the passengers, usually grouped as a family if traveling together, and, for each person, age, sex, and occupation. Under "Country to which they severally belong" will be listed the country of origin, seldom the specific place of birth. Destination is usually given as simply 'United States". Of course, you will also learn the name of the vessel, port of departure, and date of arrival in the United States. There are a few, rare lists which provide something more useful than the country of origin. These are often for immigrants from Germany, where you can sometimes find the name of the province or principality from which the immigrant came.

The lists from 1820 to 1846 were indexed in the 1930's by the WPA. This index is alphabetical by surname of passenger. The index does not appear to be complete. If a passenger is not found in the index, it is possible that the name may be found by reading through all the lists for the year of arrival. From 1 January 1847 through 15 June 1897, a period of over fifty years, there is no index to the New York lists. It is believed that the WPA project ceased after 1846 because of the huge immigration waves that began in 1847. Of the 675 rolls in this microfilm publication, only the first 65 are indexed. To locate a passenger after 1847 (or before, if not in the index) you must know the date of arrival. This may sometimes be learned from naturalization papers if that information was required by the court granting citizenship.

In the nineteenth century some courts asked for this information, while many, unfortunately for today's researchers, did not. If this information is not on the naturalization papers, the 1900 census asked for the year of immigration to the United States.

Bear in mind that all dates were provided from memory--whether naturalization papers or censuses--and thus are subject to error. If a person arrived as an infant, then the information is likely to be from someone else's memory. Such dates may be correct but be aware of the possibility of error. Most naturalization papers providing a date of arrival state that the individual arrived "...on or about" a specific date. Let's say an individual stated that he arrived on 10 April 1852. Look for him on that date first--then look two weeks on either side of that day. If he is still not found, then repeat the process for that date for the year before and the year after. Check the 1900 census to see what year was given. If the year is different, try the month/day for that year. Sometimes the person mistakenly put down the date of departure, so be prepared to look up to six or eight weeks after the date given for a sailing vessel. For later nineteenth century steamship arrivals, try looking one to two weeks later.

For some nationalities there are published passenger lists. These include Germans to America, 1850+, Italians to America, 1880+, Emigrants from the Russian Empire, 1876+. These are ongoing publications, and they are being purchased as published. The Famine Immigrants, 1846-1851, documents the arrival of many Irish into the port of New York. Not all members of each ethnic group are included in each series. For the Irish, many ships did not identify the country of origin as Ireland--all passengers were simply grouped as being from "Great Britain". In the Germans, the publishers, at least for the earlier volumes, listed only those passengers on ships that were at least 80% German. The Italians and Russians also do not list all of those nationalities.