The web sites listed on this page are intended for use by researchers, teachers, students, or anyone interested in learning more about immigration to the United States. Some are historical web sites similar to Immigration to the US that provide access to immigration research guides, online documents and records, and statistics. Others are genealogical web sites that provide data about ancestry or specific individuals. Web sites listed in the last section on datasets contain either contemporary or historical immigration data. The selections in Immigration to the US focus on voluntary immigration to the United States.

For access to digital information on the African diaspora and recent interpretations of the African-American migration experience, begin your search with the selected web sites noted below under "African-American Migration Experience."

The links on this page are selected for their unique or thorough contributions to the topic, and sites produced by governmental, cultural, or academic institutions have been favored.

Historical Resources

History of Immigration

BallinStadt Museum, Hamburg
http://www.ballinstadt.de

Historical background on the Port of Hamburg, a major point of departure for millions of European emigrants on their way to the New World.

Library of Congress: "American Memory: The Learning Page—Immigration"
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/introduction.html

Historical articles on immigration and educational resources for teachers planning lessons on immigration.

National Park Service: Ellis Island
http://www.nps.gov/elis/

Color photographs and historical overview of Ellis Island.

Peopling North America: "Population Movements and Migrations"
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/migrations/Fhome.html

Historical overview of the major human migrations to North America.

The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
http://www.ellisisland.org

Historical background of Ellis Island and database for searching passenger arrival records.

University of Minnesota: "Immigration History Research Center"
http://www.ihrc.umn.edu

100,000 pages of primary sources on immigration, including letters, diaries, and oral histories from North American immigrants during 1800–1950.

Educational Web Sites About Immigration

PBS: American Experience: "Chicago, City of the Century: Decades of Immigration"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/sfeature/sf_nations.html

Examine Chicago's top immigrant groups decade by decade, in US Census data from 1850 until 1990. Each year highlights a different country of origin from the top five immigrant groups of that year.

PBS: Destination America: "US Immigration"
http://www.pbs.org/destinationamerica/usim.html

Includes a timeline of European immigration and explorations of five freedoms that drew immigrants to the United States.

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African-American Migration Experience

BBC: "The Story of Africa: Slavery"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section9.shtml

Historical overview of the role of the African slave trade in world history. Contains contemporary and historical audio clips.

Library of Congress: "African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1818–1907"
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html

Contains 351 digitized and searchable titles from the African American Pamphlet Collection. Includes works by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, and Emanuel Love.

Mystic Seaport: "Exploring Amistad"
http://www.mysticseaport.org

Contains narratives, timelines, curricular materials, and pages from over 500 primary sources related to the Amistad Revolt of 1839–1842.

New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: "In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience"
http://www.inmotionaame.org

16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and more than 60 maps organized around 13 defining African-American migrations.

PBS: Africans in America: "America's Journey Through Slavery"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

Contains narratives, images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries, as well as teachers' guides for using the content of the web site and television series in US history courses.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and University of Virginia: "The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record"
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php

African societies and cultures, and the transatlantic slave trade. Information, pictures, illustrations, portraits of African victims of the slave trade.

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Genealogical Resources

FamilySearch
http://www.familysearch.org

Search for genealogical records on your family. The largest collection of free family history, family tree, and genealogy records in the world.

"France in America"
http://international.loc.gov/intldl/fiahtml/fiahome.html

Joint project of the Library of Congress and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France that provides digital access to books, maps, prints, and other primary source documents.

GWM: Directory of Genealogy Libraries in the U.S.
http://www.gwest.org/gen_libs.htm

Comprehensive list of genealogical libraries in all 50 states.

Harvard University Archives: "Biography Research Guide"
http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/biography.shtml

Search biographical records on past Harvard students, professors, and alumni.

JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy
http://www.jewishgen.org

Primary Internet source connecting researchers of Jewish genealogy worldwide.

Library of Congress: "Local History and Genealogy Reading Room"
http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/

Search and browse the Library of Congress's premier collection of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications.

National Archives: "Chinese Immigration Records"
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/heritage/chinese-immigration.html

Documents on Chinese Exclusion Act cases, ethnic research in NARA's San Francisco facility, and genealogical links for Asian family history.

National Archives: "Genealogists/Family Historians"
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/

Search NARA's collections of census, military service, immigration, and naturalization records.

National Archives: "Immigration Records"
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/immigration/

NARA's portal to searching immigration records (ship passenger arrival records).

National Archives: "Naturalization Records"
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/naturalization/

NARA's portal to searching naturalization records, which typically include information on an immigrant's date of birth, location, occupation, and marital status.

New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS): "New England Ancestors"
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/

The oldest genealogical library and society in the country.

University of Aberdeen: "Scottish Emigration Database"
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/emigration/

Ship passenger records for 21,000 Scottish passengers and emigrants embarking for non-Scottish ports during 1890–1960.

The USGenWeb Project
http://usgenweb.org/

Free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States.

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Datasets

Historical Immigration Data

Campbell J. Gibson and Emily Lennon, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850–1990"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/twps0029.html

Population Division of the US Census Bureau (1999). 22 detailed data tables about immigration to the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, University of Virginia Library: "Historical Census Browser, 1790–1960"
http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu

Enables users to create dynamic maps of the United States based on historical immigration data from the US Census.

Harvard-MIT Data Center
http://hmdc.harvard.edu

HMDC is the principal distributor of quantitative social science data from major international data consortia for Harvard and MIT, and a world leader in research in digital libraries and statistical methodology.

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): "Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790-2002"
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02896

Comprehensive data collection on the demographic, economic, geographic, and social characteristics of immigration to the United States available for download. [Note: These data are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.]

National Historical Geographic Information System
http://www.nhgis.org

Ongoing project to synthesize aggregate data from each US Census (from 1790 to 2000), including immigration data, into more easily accessible data collections and maps.

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Contemporary Immigration Data

US Census Bureau: "Ancestry"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/ancestry/

Datasets from the 1990 Census that identify the countries to which contemporary Americans trace their ancestry.

US Census Bureau: "Census 2000 Briefs and Special Reports"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/briefs/

Overviews of the most recent Census data on immigration to the United States.

US Census Bureau: "Foreign-Born Population"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign/

Datasets from the 2000 Census about the demographic, economic, geographic, and social characteristics of the foreign-born population in the United States.

US Census Bureau: "Hispanic Population of the United States"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hispanic/hispanic.html

Datasets from 1994 to 2004 about the demographic, economic, geographic, and social characteristics of the Hispanic population in the US.

US Census Bureau: "Immigration"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/immigration.html

Download Census Bureau estimates for future trends in immigration to the United States.

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