Passenger Lists to Virginia Before 1820

© Lorine McGinnis Schulze
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/index.shtml

The original European settlers came to Virginia in the early 17th century from England. In the early 1700s, French Huguenots arrived, followed by Germans. During the 1730s and 1740s, many Scottish and German settlers migrated from Pennsylvania into Virginia. Before January 1, 1820, the U.S. Federal Government did not require require captains or masters of vessels to present a passenger list to U.S. officials.

Most of the names of colonial immigrants to Virginia are listed in :

• Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records of ... Passengers who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. 3 volumes plus annual supplements. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981
  You can buy this on CD:
  
  Ships Passenger Lists Index, 1500s-1900s -arrival information for approximately 3,530,000 individuals who arrived in United States and Canadian ports.

Other Suggestions for Research

• True, Ransom B. The Biographical Dictionary of Early Virginia, 1607- 1660
• Withington, Lathrop. Virginia Gleanings in England: Abstracts of 17th and 18th-Century English Wills and Administrations Relating to Virginia and Virginians.
• Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776, and Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775. Buy it on sale on CD: Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776 - 140,000 names of the men, women, and children who emigrated from England to America between 1607 and 1776. It includes the texts of six books by Peter Wilson Coldham: The Complete Book of Emigrants (four volumes), along with The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage and its supplement.

For more Virginia databases and CD ROMs see the Virginia State pages at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/usa_genealogy/virginia.htm

CD ROMs on Past Voices (http://pastvoices.com/genealogy/shop_usa.shtml) are also available to help you in your search of ancestors to Virginia

Some ships lists of passengers sailing to Virginia (including French Huguenots) can be found on The Olive Tree Genealogy's pages at http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tousa_va.shtml

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