Boston, Massachusetts Passenger Lists, 1891-1943

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Immigration & Travel

Passenger Lists

Boston, Massachusetts Passenger Lists, 1891-1943

Boston, Massachusetts Passenger Lists, 1891-1943

3,945,505 գրառումները

Comprised of the passenger manifests of ships arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, from 1891 through 1943. Information available varies due to significant changes to immigration laws during the span of this collection. The most common information available includes the passenger’s name, sex, age, date of arrival, and name of the ship. More detailed passenger manifests collected additional information including marital status, birth information (date and location), nationality, last residence, home city, port of departure, as well as the names and addresses of family members in the United States and home country. This collection is comprised of NARA publication T843. Boston became a popular destination for European immigrants, particularly Irish immigrants, during the Irish Potato Famine in the mid-19th Century. The Cunard Line began offering service to Boston for Irish immigrants because their travel was often subsidized by the British government. However, even with subsidization many immigrants arrived in Boston destitute and unable to travel farther requiring them to find immediate work in Boston. Later in the 19th Century the Irish were joined by immigrants from Eastern and Mediterranean Europe. Russian Jews, finding themselves blamed for the assassination of Alexander II, fled the frequent and violent pogroms of Imperial Russia and settled in Boston. A newly unified Italy, suffering from an ineffective and unstable government as well as widespread poverty, left many Italians searching for better opportunities. Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants formed thriving communities in Boston. Boston was a prosperous economic hub and offered many opportunities for new immigrants. Work seemed to always be available for laborers building roads, bridges, the subway, and electric street cars. In addition to public works projects, laborers were needed on the docks, railroads, and in private factories where immigrants made items ranging from clothes and textiles to chemicals and rubber goods. However, employment for immigrants was not without challenges. As automation progressed, many skilled factory jobs were replaced by mechanization, resulting in long and dangerous shifts at significantly lower wages. Many immigrants turned to entrepreneurship, opening groceries, restaurants, and other retail to avoid the dangers of factory life and achieve upward socioeconomic mobility. Boston's subway system, the first in the nation, meant that communities near the city could flourish. This contributed to the development of what some contemporary sociologists referred to as Zones of Emergence. New immigrants and skilled workers aspiring to reach the middle-class lived together in these zones between the inner city and wealthier suburbs. Zones of Emergence were described as neighborhoods where "the air is brighter, cleaner, and more vibrant; sunshine falls in floods rather than in narrow shafts..." and provided an improved standard of living for many immigrants. The population of Boston more than doubled between 1880 and 1920. Immigration to Boston peaked in the 1910s, prior to World War I, and at that time immigrants accounted for approximately 40% of Boston's population. Despite the large number of immigrants arriving in Boston, the East Boston Immigration Station did not open until 1920. Prior to this station, also known as "Boston's Ellis Island", most immigrants were simply processed on the docks when they arrived. Shortly after "Boston's Ellis Island" opened, the Immigration Act of 1924 placed significant restrictions on immigration that effectively brought an end to Boston's "Golden Era" of immigration.

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