Immigration & Ships

Canadian Border Crossings

Ancestry.com recently added Canadian Border crossing cards to its database.  Note that Ancestry is a fee for service site.

 

Border Crossings use Soundex codes for your family names. The LDS Family History Centers can order indexes to the Soundex cards for either the St. Albans manifest, the Vermont Port Manifest, or the Detroit Manifests. Then you need to order the actual manifest for the year your soundex card told you that you needed.

 

The St. Albans cards cover all along the Canadian Border including entry points in Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Vermont and Washington. All the manifest cards CAN contain as much information as a Ship's passenger arrival.... but unfortunately not all do. They can tell you; the port of entry or ship reference full name of individual who accompanied by:

 

place of birth
age and sex
nationality
last permanent residence
name & address of nearest relative
destination
etc...

 

I have purchased the booklet from the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan written by Jan Zaleski, accredited Polish genealogist and Editor-in-Chief of THE EAGLET, the tri-annual journal of the PGSMi. It includes reel numbers for 1,500 rolls of microfilms of the border crossings. I am sure he would sell you one if you contacted him.

 

From a note posted by Debbie Drozdowski Owens on GENPOL (Polish Listserv)

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