Where can I find ship passenger lists?
Answer
There is no central repository for passenger lists, and in the early period of United States history, neither ships nor ports were required to keep such records. The location of existing records will depend on where your ancestor entered the United States. Some locations, such as Ellis Island, and its precursor, Castle Garden, have put their entry lists in an online database. Other passenger lists have been compiled into print indexes or digitized and made available through subscription databases such as Ancestry Library Edition.