People who are convinced that their ancestors sailed here on a passenger ship are usually quite determined to find them, and they always seem to believe that the records for that ship will show precisely where their ancestors were from as well as where they sailed from.

To be honest its not always so simple as that, and in some cases, the ships passenger list might not reveal all the information that you want it to reveal. When your ancestors arrived in this country will often be a consideration in whether or not you find the information that you want from the ships passenger lists.

In many circumstances, finding their home of record isn’t going to be as easy from the ships passenger lists as it will be from other paperwork, such as using naturalization papers.

Also, though not a lot of people are aware of it, the laws that made a ships passenger list necessary were not passed until around 1820. There are three major “eras” of the ships passenger list, which are before 1820, between 1820 and 1890, and 1891-1954.

Each particular era saw different questions asked of the passengers on the ships, and those questions were answered and recorded on the ships passenger lists. Those which were kept between 1891 and 1954 are of course the more complete.
The questions which the new immigrants were asked included important details such as:

• Their marital status
• The place of their last residence
• Their proposed destination or place of residence in the United States
• If they had ever been to the United States before and where and when they had done so.
• The name and address of any relative they would be joining in the United states as well as relationship.

Then in 1906 they added a few more questions to the ships passenger lists forms, which gave a bit more information to prospective genealogists who are using them. In addition to those questions listed above they now asked for:
• The description of the traveler, such as their height, skin color, eyes and hair color and any identifying marks on their person.
• Their exact place of birth, whether it was city, town or small village
• A name and an address for their closest living relative in the country they were leaving.

• If, instead your family member had landed in the US between 1820 and 1890,then the only thing you will most likely find are the Customs Passenger Lists to help you gain information. They did not contain a great deal of information.
• Port of departure
• Date and port of the ships arrival
• Each one of the passenger’s names, their ages, their sex, what they did for a living and their nationality.
Unfortunately the US National Archives doesn’t have ships passengers lists in their contents. It can provide a copy of any passenger lists that were turned over to it by the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service it was created in 1935.

In many cases you can find ships passenger lists for free on the internet, and many are available for you in the LDS files as well.