Chinese Emigration and Immigration

Chinese Genealogy

Emigration and Immigration

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Online Resources

• 1882-1888 United States, California, San Francisco, Records of Chinese Laborers Returning to the US, 1882-1888 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
• 1882-1947 California, San Francisco Chinese passenger lists, 1882-1947 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
• 1882-1888 San Francisco, California, Registers of Chinese Laborers Returning to the U.S., 1882-1888 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• 1882-1903 Portland, Oregon, Chinese Immigrant Landing Records and Applications for Admission, 1882-1903 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• 1883-1923 U.S., Chinese Immigration Case Files, 1883-1923 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• 1883-1924 California, San Francisco, Register of Chinese Immigrant Court Cases and Foreign Seamen Tax Cards, 1883-1924 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
• 1884-1940 California, Chinese Arrival Case Files Index, 1884-1950 at Ancestry ($); index
• 1893-1943 California, Chinese Partnerships and Departures from San Francisco, 1893-1943 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
• 1895-1989 Hawaii, Certificates of Identification for Chinese Arrivals, 1895-1898 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• 1898-1943 New York, Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1898-1943 at Ancestry ($); index
• 1900-1923 Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Case Files of Chinese Immigrants, 1900-1923 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only
• 1903-1944 North Dakota and Washington, Chinese Passenger Arrivals and Disposition, 1903-1944 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• 1903-1944 California, Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1903-1944 at Ancestry ($); index
• 1903-1944 Hawaii, Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1903-1944 at Ancestry ($); index
• 1903-1947 San Francisco, California, Chinese Passenger Arrivals and Disposition, 1903-1947 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• 1905-1923 California, San Diego, Chinese Passenger and Crew Lists, 1905-1923 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
• 1906-1912, 1929-1941 Vancouver, British Columbia, Manifests of Chinese Arrivals, 1906-1912, 1929-1941 at Ancestry ($); index and images
• Angel Island Immigration Station
• USCIS
• USCIS Genealogy Program
• National Archives
• Angel Island Immigration Station Immigrant Voices

Chinese Amerians

• The 1849 California Gold Rushdrew the first significant number of laborers from China who mined for gold and performed menial labor.
• There were 25,000 immigrants by 1852, and 105,465 by 1880, most of whom lived on the West Coast.
• Chinese workers came in order to send money back to China to support their families there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to North America.
• Nearly all of the early immigrants were young males from six districts in Guangdong Province. The Guangdong province experienced extreme floods, famine, mass political unrest in the mid-nineteenth century.
• These Chinese immigrants were predominantly men. By 1900 only 4,522 of the 89,837 Chinese migrants that lived in the U.S. were women. The lack of women migrants was largely due to the passage of U.S. anti-immigration laws.
• Upon arrival to the U.S. Chinese men and women were separated from each other as they awaited hearings on their immigration status, which often took weeks. Ninety percent of the Chinese women who immigrated to the US between 1898 and 1908 did so to join their husband or father who already resided in the U.S.
• In the 1850s, Chinese immigrants were particularly instrumental in building railroads in the U.S. west. The Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor gangs, many on five-year contracts, to build its portion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
• As Chinese laborers grew successful in the United States, a number of them became entrepreneurs in their own right.
• The Chinese population rose from 2,716 in 1851 to 63,000 by 1871. In the decade 1861–70, 64,301 were recorded as arriving, followed by 123,201 in 1871–80 and 61,711 in 1881–1890.
• 77% were located in California, with the rest scattered across the West, the South, and New England.
• As the numbers of Chinese laborers increased, so did the strength of anti-Chinese attitude among other workers in the U.S. economy. This finally resulted in legislation that aimed to limit future immigration through the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• From the 1850s through the 1870s, the California state government passed a series of measures aimed at Chinese residents, ranging from requiring special licenses for Chinese businesses or workers to preventing naturalization.
• In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers (skilled or unskilled) and renewed the Act in 1892, 1902, and then indefinitely. The Chinese Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943.

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