Passenger rosters serve as crucial original records of arrival information for many individuals who migrated to the United States during the 1800s. This index, which is organized and easily searchable, provides comprehensive arrival details for around 258,000 individuals who landed in New Orleans from 1820 to 1850.
Partially to address the issue of overcrowding on passenger vessels, on March 2, 1819, Congress passed a law (3 Stat. 489) to oversee the transportation of passengers on vessels coming from overseas ports. According to this law, shipmasters were mandated to provide a roster of all passengers to the local customs collector at the port of arrival. The law further stipulated that customs collectors forward quarterly reports of passenger lists to the Secretary of State, who was then obligated to relay this data to Congress. This information was subsequently made available in the form of Congressional documents. These passenger rosters remain crucial original records for understanding immigration to the United States in the 1800s.