California, San Francisco, Immigration Office Special Inquiry Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States California

	This article describes a collection of historical records available at FamilySearch.org.
Access the records: California, San Francisco, Immigration Office Special Inquiry Records, 1910-1941 . CID2299374 {{{CID2}}} {{{CID3}}} {{{CID4}}} {{{CID5}}} {{{CID6}}} {{{CID7}}} {{{CID8}}} {{{CID9}}}

Record Description

The collection consists of registers of persons held for Boards of Special Inquiry at the San Francisco, California, Immigration Office, February 1910-May 1941. This collection corresponds to NARA Publication M1388.

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for California, San Francisco, Immigration Office Special Inquiry Records, 1910-1941.

Record Content

Record of Aliens Held for Inquiry

The records may contain any of the following:

Name of ship
Port of embarkation
Date and seaport of entry
Final destination
Whether or not ticket to final destination
Name of passenger
Birth place
Age in years and months
Gender
Civil status
Occupation
Whether or not can read and write
Nationality
Last permanent residence
Destination
Who paid for passage
Declaration of money in possession
Whether or not has been in U. S. before
Whether or not passenger has been in prison
Whether or not passenger is a polygamist
Name and address of relative or friend passenger plans to join
Whether or not under contract to labor
General condition and statement of health
Description of passenger

How to Use the Record

To begin your search it is helpful to know:

Name of the immigrant
Approximate date of immigration.

If you do not know this information, check the census records after 1900.

Search the Collection

To browse by image:
To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links:
⇒ Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page
⇒ Select the "Volume and Year Range" which takes you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:

There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

Using the Information

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details. Add this new information to your records of each family. You should also look for leads to other records about your ancestors.

For example, you can use passenger lists to:

Learn an immigrant’s place of origin
Confirm their date of arrival
Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
Find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, or ship’s manifests.

Tips to Keep in Mind

If your ancestor had a common name, be sure to look at all the entries for a name before you decide which is correct.
Continue to search the passenger lists to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who may have immigrated at the same time.
If your ancestor has an uncommon surname, you may want to obtain the passenger list of every person who shares your ancestor’s surname if they lived in the same county or nearby. You may not know how or if they are related, but the information could lead you to more information about your own ancestors.

Unable to Find Your Ancestor?

Check for variant spellings of the name.
Look for an index. Records are often indexed by local historical and genealogical societies.
Search the passenger lists year by year.
Search the indexes of other port cities.

Related Websites

National Archives

How You Can Contribute

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Citations for this Collection

Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Collection Citation:
The citation for this collection can be found on the Collection Details Page in the section Cite This Collection.

Image Citation
This template has been deprecated and is no longer used.

When looking at an image, the citation is found on the Information tab at the bottom left of the screen. You can browse through images in this collection by visiting the browse page for California, San Francisco, Immigration Office Special Inquiry Records, 1910-1941.