1. Name of port or arrival, ship's master, ship, port of departure, and date of arrival   2. Number of passengers, number born enroute, number died enroute   3. Name of the ship, departure port   4. Passengers' names   5. Country to which they belong   6. Occupation   7. Age   8. Destination

Customs List Port of New Orleans, 1820

Customs List

The master or captain of a ship prepared two copies of a passenger list. Between 1820 and 1905, he kept the original and filed the copy with a customs officer upon arrival at a United States port. Starting in 1855, masters of British ships began making a third copy that was filed with the British consul in the American port.

These documents exist for the following ports (places where lists are limited to less than three years have been omitted): Alexandria, VA Baltimore, MD Belfast, ME Boston, MA Charleston, SC Dighton, MA Edgartown, MA Fall River, MA Galveston, TX Gloucester, MA Kennebunk, ME Key West, FL Marblehead, MA Midddletown, CT Mobile, AL Nantucket, MA New Bedford, MA New Bern, NC Newburyport, MA New Haven, CT New London, CT New Orleans, LA Newport, RI New York, New York Norfolk and Portsmouth, VA Passamaquoddy, ME Philadelphia, PA Plymouth, MA Portland & Famouth, ME Portsmouth, NH Port Townsend & Tacoma, WA Providence, RI Provincetown, MA Richmond, VA St. Augustine, FL San Francisco, CA Savannah, GA Washington, NC Wilmington, DE

Original copies of the Customs Passenger Lists for the five major ports (Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia) are maintained by the Temple-Baich Center for Immigration Research in Philadelphia and are not available for use by the public without receiving special permission.

However, microfilmed copies of the lists for these ports are available at the National Archives and its Regional Centers, various public and private libraries, and the LDS Family History Library and its Centers.

The National Archives in Washington, DC, maintains original copies of the Customs Passenger Lists for the other ports. Microfilmed copies of the lists for the five major ports are available at the National Archives and its Regional Centers, various public and private libraries, and the LDS Family History Library and its Centers.

Suggested Reading: Michael Tepper. American Passenger Arrival Records. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993.

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