My Italian Family

What you need to know:

If you have the approximate year of birth and/or approximate age at immigration to distinguish between 20-30 people with the same names, and the year of immigration of your Ancestor, you can start researching the passenger list of the ship on which he or she traveled to the new continent.

What you can find:

These lists contain very precious genealogical information:

Full Name
Age
Sex
Profession
(Last residence in Italy)
(Birth place)
(Names and addresses of the relatives in the new country)
Name of the vessel
Port of departure
Port and date of arrival
Name of the master of the ship
Name of the owner of the ship
Number and names of passengers who died during the Atlantic crossing

The brackets identify the information on the immigrant that can be additionally found in those passengers' lists that relate to the period ranging from 1891 to 1954.

Ports of Entry (POE)

You may want start your research with the port of New York, given that most of the Italian immigrants entered through this port.

Ships passenger lists for arrival to the Port of New York are organized as follows:

1. From 1820 to 1846: Alphabetical Index (centralized by the National Archives)

2. From 1847 to June 15, 1897: Unindexed
You may want to look at Italians to America published index

3. From June 16, 1897 to June 30, 1902: Alphabetical Index (centralized by the National Archives)

4. From July 1, 1902 to 1948: Soundex Index
Learn how to convert your surname into a Soundex code (link to Soundexcode.doc)

If you do not know the name of the ship and the year and place of arrival, you cannot go to the ship manifest directly. In fact, you need to use indexed information.

In accessing indexed information you need to be very careful: you may encounter problems with the spelling, with the number of people with the same name and age, with strange interpretations of handwriting, with hard-to-read copy, with women traveling under their maiden name (and sometimes the listing of the children accompanying the mother didn't give their correct surname), etc.

Ships' passengers lists are available through:

National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has immigration records for various ports for the years 1820-1957. Various NARA microfilm publications reproduce passenger arrival records from main ports.
You may do research in immigration records in person at the:
National Archives Building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001. Go to Room 400, the Microfilm Reading Room.
Paper copies of immigration records can be ordered by mail using one NATF Form 81 for each person or family group traveling together.
You can obtain the NATF Form 81 by providing your name and mailing address to: inquire@nara.gov.
Be sure to specify "Form 81" and the number of forms you need.
You can also obtain the NATF Form 81 by writing to:
National Archives and Records Administration, Attn: NWCTB, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001.

Family History Centers at the Mormon Church

Ask for an "Italians to America" lookup by e-mailing: ask@myitalianfamily.com