Oregon Emigration and Immigration

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U.S. Emigration and Immigration

Oregon

Emigration and Immigration

United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records

How to Find the Records

Online Resources

• 1500s-1900s All U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s at Ancestry; index only ($); Also at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• 1882-1903 Portland, Oregon, Chinese Immigrant Case files, 1882-1903 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
• 1888-1956 Oregon Passenger and Crew Lists, 1888-1956 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
• 1888-1963 Oregon, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1888-1963 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
• 1895-1954 Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1954 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
• 1895-1956 United States, Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956 at MyHeritage; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• 1895-1964 All U.S., Border Crossings from Mexico to U.S., 1895-1964 at Ancestry; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• 1920-1939 Germany, Bremen Emigration Lists, 1920-1939 at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• 1949-1955 Oregon, Portland, Index and Register of Vessels, 1949-1955 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
• Germans Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• Italians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• Russians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Oregon
• Paper Trail, index

Passport Records Online

• 1795-1925 - United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1795-1925 - U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 Index and images, at Ancestry ($)

Offices to Contact

Although many records are included in the online records listed above, there are other records available through these archives and offices. For example, there are many minor ports that have not yet been digitized. There are also records for more recent time periods. For privacy reasons, some records can only be accessed after providing proof that your ancestor is now deceased.

National Archives and Records Administration

• The National Archives (NARA) has immigration records for arrivals to the United States from foreign ports between approximately 1820 and 1982. The records are arranged by Port of Arrival (See Part 5).

• You may do research in immigration records in person at the National Archives Building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001.

• Some National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regional facilities have selected immigration records; call to verify their availability or check the online Microfilm Catalog.
• Libraries with large genealogical collections, such as the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and the Allen County Piblic Library also have selected NARA microfilm publications.

• Order copies of passenger arrival records with NATF Form 81.

note to me: Add collections for each state

U.S. Citizenship and and Immigration Services Genealogy Program

The USCIS Genealogy Program is a fee-for-service program that provides researchers with timely access to historical immigration and naturalization records of deceased immigrants. If the immigrant was born less than 100 years ago, you will also need to provide proof of his/her death.

Immigration Records Available

• A-Files: Immigrant Files, (A-Files) are the individual alien case files, which became the official file for all immigration records created or consolidated since April 1, 1944.
• Alien Registration Forms (AR-2s): Alien Registration Forms (Form AR-2) are copies of approximately 5.5 million Alien Registration Forms completed by all aliens age 14 and older, residing in or entering the United States between August 1, 1940 and March 31, 1944.
• Registry Files: Registry Files are records, which document the creation of immigrant arrival records for persons who entered the United States prior to July 1, 1924, and for whom no arrival record could later be found.
• Visa Files: Visa Files are original arrival records of immigrants admitted for permanent residence under provisions of the Immigration Act of 1924.

Requesting a Record

• Web Request Page allows you to request a records, pay fees, and upload supporting documents (proof of death).
• Record Requests Frequently Asked Questions

Finding Town of Origin

Records in the countries emigrated from are kept on the local level. You must first identify the name of the town where your ancestors lived to access those records. If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.

• U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin

Background

Early Migrations

• Early 1800s, traders and trappers came into the area from Canada, Russia, Latin America and the United States.
• 1811, John Jacob Astor, an American, established the first white settlement in Oregon.
• 1830s and 1840s, other settlements were created in the Willamette River valley. These settlers generally came from Midwestern and eastern states, Canada and Russia.
• 1843, a provisional government was set up by American settlers.
• In the same year, over 900 more Americans arrived, mostly from Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.

Oregon Donation Land Claim Act

• see Donation Land Claim Act, a federal act.
• The Oregon Donation Act of 1850 guaranteed free land to those who settled and cultivated the land before 1 December 1855. 7,437 patents were issued before the expiration of the Act.
• New settlers surged into the Oregon Territory, primarily from the Mississippi River valley, the Midwest and the South.
• Foreign-born immigrants came mainly from Canada, Germany, Scandinavia, England and Russia.

Gold Discovery

• 1860, gold discovery at Pierce, in northern Idaho made Portland an important trade depot.
• 1862, gold discovery at what was Auburn, Oregon by Henry Griffin and David Littlefield opened up settlement of the Eastern Oregon.
• The completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883 going up north from California, brought many new settlers into Oregon. This was Oregon's first transcontinental rail connection.
• Later immigrants came from China, Japan, the Philippines and Latin America.
• By 1889, the Oregon Short Line connected Union Pacific Railway with Oregon Railway and Navigation Company at Huntington, Oregon brought in more settlers faster in more direct link from the East Coast.
• A helpful source on overland migration is William Adrian Bowen, The Willamette Valley: Migration and Settlement on the Oregon Frontier (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1978) WorldCat 3650932; FHL fiche 6101360; book 979.53 X4b.

Records

• There are no known lists of passengers arriving in Oregon ports (such as Astoria, Coos Bay (then Marshfield,) Portland and Tillamook).
• Records of ethnic groups and shipping enterprises are available at the Oregon Historical Society Library.

Trails

• The Oregon-California Trails Association is an educational organization that promotes the story of the westward migration to Oregon, among other places. Their site includes a personal name index to trail diaries, journals, reminiscences, autobiographies, newspaper articles, guidebooks and letters at A Guide to Overland Pioneer Names and Documents.

• 1853 Routes to California and Oregon in the Hayward's United States Gazetteer.

Minorities

• Records of minorities, such as the Basques, Swedes,and Chinese.

African Americans

Nokes, R. Gregory. Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trail in the Oregon Territory. Oregon State University Press. c. 2013 WorldCat

Native Americans

• For records of Native Americans, see Indians of Oregon. Some of these tribes are the Cayuse, Klamath, Modoc, Nez Perce, Paiute, Tillamook, and Umatilla.

References

Oregon Research Outline. Salt Lake City, Utah: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., Family History Department, 1998, 2001.

NOTE: All of the information from the original research outline has been imported into this Wiki site and is being updated as time permits.