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US/Canada Immigration and Emigration: Border Crossing Records by Beverley A. & Kenneth W. Rees. Don’t Worry, Be Happy!. Don’t worry about taking notes quickly. We will be posting the Power Point presentations for all of our lectures on our Web site. Ancestor Find www.familyhistree.com.
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US/Canada Immigration and Emigration: Border Crossing Records by Beverley A. & Kenneth W. Rees
Don’t Worry, Be Happy! Don’t worry about taking notes quickly. We will be posting the Power Point presentations for all of our lectures on our Web site. Ancestor Find www.familyhistree.com
Border Entry from the US into Canada • Many immigrants to Canada came from the United States or sailed from Europe to American ports on their way to Canada. • During the 18th and 19th centuries, people were able to move freely across the border from the United States into Canada and vice versa. [prior to April 1908]
Prior to April 1908 So. . . . . .if you have ancestors who came to Canada from the United States prior to 1908 you are simply out of luck. No border crossing records exist!!!
Cross-Border Traffic • Limited and encouraged by the dominant mode of transportation for the time and place • Rivers and lakes. • Roads and trails. • Railroads (from about 1849) • Highways (motor road)
A Few Typical Routes into Canada • From San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle up the coast through Blaine and into the lower mainland of British Columbia • Via ship or boat into Victoria, British Columbia. • From central Oregon and Washington into the Okanagan region of British Columbia
A Few Typical Routes into Canada • Through Montana into Alberta and Saskatchewan (the cowboy trail) • Through the Dakotas into Saskatchewan and Manitoba (common for Scandinavians and others) • Via Minnesota, Michigan, and New York into Ontario
A Few Typical Routes into Canada • From the northeastern States into Quebec and New Brunswick.
Roads Run Both Ways! • These routes were also used as Canadians moved into the United States. • Migration to/from Canada (or the United States) was constant. Families could and did move repeatedly from one country to the other. • Much of this migration was motivated by simple economics, although other reasons existed.
Border Entry from the US into Canada • If you have ancestors who came into Canada from the United States prior to 1908 you are simply out of luck. No border crossing records exist. • Not all immigrants crossing the border were registered. • Some crossed when the ports were closed or where no port existed.
Border Entry from the US into Canada • Many families were not registered because one or both parents had been born in Canada or previously resided there, and they were considered Returning Canadians rather than immigrants. • The Government of Canada did not keep records of people leaving the country.
Library and Archives Canada Research: • Border entry lists (RG 76) were the official record of immigration. • There are no immigrant applications or files. • These records contain genealogical information about each immigrant such as age, country of birth, last place of residence, occupation and destination in Canada.
1908 – 1918: • Lists are arranged by border port and date of entry. • If you do not know those details, you must search these un-indexed lists port by port and month by month for the appropriate region.
January 1919 to the end of 1924: • The Department of Immigration and Colonization required that Individual Forms (Form 30, RG 76 C5b) be used to record immigrants entering Canada from or via the United States. • This series also includes a few forms from later years.
Form 30, RG 76 C5b • From January 1, 1919 to December 31, 1924, the Department of Immigration and Colonization required that individual forms (Form 30, RG 76 C5b) be completed and submitted to the immigration officers at border ports, instead of the large sheet border-entry lists previously in use. A form was submitted for each immigrant or family, including some returning Canadians. • The use of Form 30 was discontinued as of January 1, 1925. From that date, the use of large sheet lists was reinstated, although some Form 30 records dated after 1924 appear in this series, in particular for January, February and March of 1925.
Form 30 Details • Port and Date of Entry, Race, Name, Citizenship, Age, Religion, Occupation, Last Permanent Address, Birthplace, and Destination. • In some cases, the names of accompanying dependents were included with the head of household, not on separate forms. • Note: Most Form 30s were microfilmed with the backside first, followed by the front.
1925 to 1935: • The use of border entry lists was reinstated in 1925. • For each month, the records for all ports are filed together. • These records contain more details, such as place of birth, name and address of the relative, friend or employer to whom they were destined; and name and address of the nearest relative in the country from whence they came.
Border Entries letter “C” • Searchable database for surnames beginning with “C” • Other surnames, staff will do a search in the indexes if sufficient identifying details are given including year of entry. • January to March 1925 are not indexed
Border Entries . . . . . • Individual Form 30s are available for January to March 1925 in addition to border entry lists by port. • They are not indexed
The National Archives of Canada • Individual Form 30 records are available for those months in addition to the border entry lists by port. • Records after 1935 are in the custody of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Obtaining Copies of Records Copies of pages can be obtained from the Photoduplication Unit. Click here to find out how. Note that requests for copies must include complete references: Record Group 76, name of ship, port and date of arrival, name of immigrant, volume number, page number, microfilm reel number.
Border Ports In 1895, the United States established border ports along the Canada-United States border and began recording arrivals from Canada.
Border Crossing Records Now Online!! • Time period covered is 1895 – 1956 • Became available on Ancestry.com on March 28, 2007 • First and only on-line collection of over 4 million names of individuals who crossed the US-Canadian borders. • The US-Canadian border typically offered easier entrance to the United States than seaports such as Ellis Island. • This collection also includes more than 100 million names from the largest online collection of US passenger lists, spanning 1820 – 1960.
Everyone has their own unique family story! • Not all our immigrant ancestors came to America on board a ship. • This collection represents a significant opportunity for people whose ancestors had Canadian roots or entered the country via Canada to trace their footsteps back in time.
Border Crossing Entries Ancestry.com transcribed the names in the collection from more than 1 million documents, some containing passport type photos of immigrants. The records were culled from more than 100 land-ports of entry from Washington to Maine. Among the busiest ports of entry on both sides of the border were Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Detroit. Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. The Border Crossing also contain a surprising number of nationalities with Russians, Italians, and Chinese among the most common nationalities of people crossing the US – Canadian border.
