US arrivals Records of the U.S. Customs Service, (1820 - ca. 1891) often referred to as "Customs Passenger Lists" Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (1891 - 1957)

The first organized party of emigrants to leave Norway on a ship directly for America are known as the "sloopers". They left from Stavanger in 1825 on the sloop "Restaurasjon". The next two ships left in 1836, and from then, ships would set out every year with a number of emigrants. However, not all Norwegians traveled directly, some went via other European ports. The majority of the emigrants traveled on "steerage", and were more or less considered as cargo. The origin of the expression steerage, comes from steers (cattle), and indicates that the emigrants traveled under the same conditions, and on the same decks as the cattle. The transatlantic voyage was dangerous and many passengers did not survive the crossing because of the rough conditions aboard many ships. But, there was a limit to how many passengers a ship could carry, and how the ships should be fitted and equipped to carry passengers. No Ship was to sail for North America with more than 3 persons on board for every 4 tons of burthen. This was regulated by the US passenger act of 1819: SEC.4; And be it further enacted, That the captain or master of any ship or vessel arriving in the United States, or any of the territories thereof, from any foreign place whatever, at the same time that he delivers a manifest of the cargo, and, if there be no cargo, then at the time of making report or entry of the ship or vessel, pursuant to the existing laws of the United States, shall also deliver and report, to the collector of the district in which such ship or vessel shall arrive, a list or manifest of all the passengers taken on board of the said ship or vessel at any foreign port or place; in which list or manifest it shall be the duty of the said master to designate, particularly, the age, sex, and occupation, of the said passengers, respectively, the country to which they severally belong, and that of which it is their intention to become inhabitants; and shall further set forth whether any, and what number, have died on the voyage; which report and manifest shall be sworn to be the said master, in the same manner as is directed by the existing laws of the United States, in relation to the manifest of the cargo, and that the refusal or neglect of the master aforesaid, to comply with the provisions of this section, shall incur the same penalties, disabilities, and forfeitures, as are at present provided for a refusal or neglect to report and deliver a manifest of the cargo aforesaid. Beginning January 1st 1820, the U.S. Government required such passenger lists to be filed by the ship master with the collector of Customs in the port of entry to make sure the law was not violated. Many of these lists have survived and are available at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): The US National Archives (NARA), Immigrant and Passenger Arrivals By studying a number of these lists you will find that they are actually not compiled by the ship's master, but rather by a clerk with the collector of customs. You will se the same handwriting on many lists of different ships. In some cases parts of the lists seams to be compiled by the captain, while other parts are compiled by the customs as a formality. The content varies a lot from list to list.

Heading and top of the passenger list for the Norwegian bark Embla which arrived at New York in 1849. This list is quite typical for this period. Note that in the column "OCCUPATION", all of the passengers are listed as "farmers". The word "farmers" is just written once at the top of the list. The same goes for the column with the heading "The country to which they severally belong", where "Norway" is just repeated for all of the passengers, and the column "The Country in which they intend to become inhabitants". In many cases we know that this information is wrong, as we have identified craftsmen and Swedes on several lists, listed as "farmers" and "Norway". Also typically for the OCCUPATION" column is "Farmers and Mechanics. . The reason for not being more accurate is probably that these information was not of a great importance, according to the purpose of the list, which was actually to count the number of passengers to see if the captain was going to be charged any fees for carrying to many according to the regulations. The column "Died on the voyage" seams not to have been filed on many of these lists, even though we know there had been deaths aboard, the column is often empty. The list below is from the Ebenezer in 1850, it is slightly more detailed than the above

This is an example of how different the lists can be. The one to the left gives only the initials to the first and middle name, and only the patronymic as a surname. The middle scan shows a list which have full first names but only the patronymic as surname. The scan to the right shows a better list, giving us the full names, first name, patronymic, and the farmname as surname.

This is an example of how the Quebec lists may look like, but there are great variations. This is one of the better lists concerning the amount of information included. It is for the Askur arriving Quebec from Drammen in 1866

The passenger lists for steam ships were created by British pursers and their knowledge of Norwegian naming practices was limited. For this reason you will usually find all family members listed with the patronymic name of the "head of household". You will not always find the farm/family name. Until approximately mid-1990's, all passengers who were not of "British Birth" are found designated as "Foreign". For the passengers planning on staying in Canada, you will find more information than for those proceeding directly to the United States. The record(s) for US bound passengers may only include, name and age ... occasionally occupation and/or destination.

This is an example of how the steam ship passenger lists looked like in 1893. The condition you see on the scan, is pretty much what you should expect from the films. This fragment is from the list of the S/S State of Nebraska arriving at Halifax from Liverpool in March 1893

There are US records of passengers arriving at Canadian ports, who then entered the US through a Border Entry Port such as Buffalo, records beginning in 1895. These are called the "St. Alban's Lists", and below, you will find information pertaining to these lists. Indexed records: There is an old nominal card index, of questionable accuracy, for Quebec arrivals 1865 to 1869. Each index card provides name, sometimes age, name of ship, date of arrival at Quebec and the reel number on which that list appears. When consulting the index, beware of spelling variations and misfilings. The NAC is in the process of indexing the 1925-1935 arrival records. LDS records of Canadian Arrivals: The LDS have copies of the earliest archived records for the ports of Quebec and Halifax only. Port of Quebec: Film # 0889440 to 0889467 for the years 1865 to 1899 Port of Halifax: Film # 0889429 to 0889439 for the years 1881 to 1899 Pre-Archiving: Marj Kohli, from the University of Waterloo, in Ontario Canada, has provided some priceless information about "Immigration to [and through] Canada", at her website: The Voyage. Scroll down to "Norwegians". Of special interest is the report of 1853, as it contains routes and fares to the US from Quebec and Montreal. There is a lot of good reading at Marj's site. St. Alban's Lists: In addition to the Canadian ship list, there should also be a US record in the immigration records at the US National Archives [NARA] called the "St. Albans Lists." The St. Albans lists are actually several publications. The two of interest to you are given below with the NARA publication number (i.e., M-1461). The same records are also available by the LDS Family History Centers, but they use a different publication number. You would want, first: M-1461 Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries through the St. Albans, VT, District, 1895--1924. M1461. 400 rolls. (Roll 218 not used). 16mm. This is a Soundex name index to entries at all the ports along the Canadian Border and the Great Lakes. The record will be a card record with either a lot or a little information (usually, a lot!). You can see a roll list of these records. You'll also want to see: M-1464 Manifests of Passengers Arriving in the St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895--1954. M1464. 640 rolls. These are actually big sheet manifests, like for ships, but they were filled out when the immigrant entered the US through a border port like Port Huron, Buffalo or Chicago. These records are filed first by DATE (month), then by PORT (border port), then by SEA PORT (Quebec, Montreal, Halifax, Saint John). These records contain MUCH more information than the Canadian Passenger Lists. They also give the address and the people who were left behind, with the relationship to the Immigrant, they give the name address and relationship of the person the Immigrant was going to, in the US. You will also find out the height, eye color and hair color of your Immigrant.

The Norwegian records Police emigration lists (1867 - 1925) Norwegian church moving lists (1820 - 1915)

The Police emigration records: The mass emigration from Norway started in 1865, and several ship-owners saw the opportunity to earn good money by transporting emigrants to America. They would carry passengers to America, and take cargo back for Europe. Despite of the Passenger Act, the conditions for the passengers on board many of the ships was horrific. The newspapers in Norway were filled with stories about passengers suffering and dying on the transatlantic crossing. There were also stories about how people had been tempted in to emigrate even though they did not have enough money to pay for their passage. They had signed contracts to work for companies in America, and pay their fee by labor after arrival. Many of them had been tricked to sign contracts they could not get free from. Complaints had actually been going on for many years when the government at last decided that they wanted to monitor the activities of the transportation companies and their agents in 1867. This was when the first emigration records were started as a temporary arrangement. A new law was passed May 22nd, 1869 concerning the transporting of passengers to foreign parts of the world. This law was intended to protect the emigrants against trickery from the agents. According to the law, the agents had to have police authorization and the shipowners had to provide a considerable sum of money to guarantee the wellbeing of the passengers. According to the law, the agents had to sign a written contract with the emigrants. The contract was to specifically state everything included in the ticket. Before the contract was valid, it had to be presented to the police chief who then signed the contract with the agent and the emigrant. At the same time the emigrants were entered in the police register of emigrants including details about the agent or line responsible for the contract. This prevented the agents from making false promises to the emigrants. If the agents were guilty of breaking the law, they could lose their credentials. Their authorization had to be renewed annually. Paragraph 6 in the "Law concerning control of conveying emigrants to foreign destinations": The agent is to produce a written contract for each emigrant that includes specific and detailed information concerning predetermined conditions about the manner and to which destination the emigrant and his clothing shall be transported, whether the, and the extent to which the shipping line is obligated to maintain the emigrant if the ship, because of misfortune, should have to remain in port, or his further transportation in case of shipwreck or if, for health reasons, he be unable to complete the journey, as well as what compensation of the emigrant is paid or shall be paid. Any other conditions, that for practical reasons should be given further clarification, shall be left up to the King to determine. Any agreement that the journey be paid for in total or in part by the performance of labor following arrival at the foreign destination is null and void, and will result in a fine for the agent in accordance with paragraph 10. The contract shall be presented to the Chief of Police and must bear his signature, the document then being handed over to the emigrant who, if possible, should personally be present to receive it. The lists produced by the police; called "Emigrasjonsprotokoll" ("Emigration Protocol", or "The Police Lists") are not passenger lists for specific ships. They are lists of persons intending to emigrate from Norway. The emigrants were entered in to the lists as they appeared at the police station to sign their contracts. People traveling on different ships from different lines are entered in the lists regardless of what ship or company they traveled with. The majority traveled via England or Germany. The ship they traveled on from Norway are feeder ships. There are no specific passenger lists existing for feeder ships, sailing between Norway and other European ports. The emigration lists are the only outbound source. There are no surviving inbound passenger lists for these ship in England or Germany. The police listed various information in the protocol. Note also that the protocols were not kept the same way at all times and by all police offices. The first entry in the Trondheim protocol was made on April 24th 1867. It was for the passengers departing on the Bark Neptunus, which left Trondheim on May 2nd for Quebec. Note that the date in the protocol is the date when the contract was signed by the police, and not necessary the date of departure. (usually the day or two before the actual departure).

The information in these records could actually be divided in to two. First there is the kind of information regarding the person him self, and then there is some information of more administrative nature related to the voyage and emigration process.

The personal information:

No By the name of every emigrant there was a number. It was starting at no 1 for the first emigrant listed every year. This is really more of an administrative information, but is mentioned here anyway. Udvandreren - Den Udvandredes Navn In the column under this heading you will find the name of the emigrant. In many cases only the patronymic (the name of the father + sen or datter at the end) used as surname, and in other cases you will find a farmname or a family name used as a surname. this became more and more common as time passed. You should note that in many cases people would change their surname (farmname) when they moved from one farm to another. However, many people would use the farmname as their surname after moving in to the cities. Navn - fam. forhold This is more or less the same as the above, but was used at a later time to replace the old heading (After 1879) In this column you find the name of the emigrant, and information about family status, for example, if they where married Hjemsted In this column we will find the name of the place where the emigrant had last been living. Note that this is not necessarily the same place where he was born. Let's say we have Ole Pedersen Strand 35 years listed in 1867: Hjemsted (homeplace): Trondheim. To find out if he was actually born in Trondheim we could consult the 1865 census. In the census the place of birth is supposed to be listed. Quite a few of the emigrants did not move for the first time as they emigrated to America. Many would travel from the rural areas to a city to look for work, and maybe stay there for a while before deciding to cross the pond. Alder Under this heading you will find the age of the emigrant. For the early years in particular, this is not necessarily very accurate for children, as the fee in some cases depended on the age of the child. There were different rates for adults, children 1 - 14 and for infants under 1. It is amazingly few entries of children at the age of 14, while there are a lot of children at the age of 13 in the early years of the records. Stand/Stilling In this column you will find information about the occupation of the emigrants. Often not vary accurate in the early years. Most people would be lists as Arbeidsmand or jordarbeider, even though they were often more specialized in their occupation. Later this was more accurately. Hvorhen The final destination is listed here. In many cases one will be surprised to find that the emigrants did not necessarily sail on a ship landing in the nearest port to the final destination. Quite a few of the immigrants would enter the US from Canada, even if it would have been a shorter inland voyage from a port in the US. M - K - Kjønn This is information about what sex the emigrant was. M is male, K is female

Administrative information

Agenten this column you will find the name of the agent. In the years from 1867 to 1880, the name of the company was not listed, only the name of the agent. You will find a link to a page with information about what companies the agents represented further down on this page. This information is important to obtain to narrow the search for a passenger list for the arrival in America, as knowing the company will narrow your search down to only a few ships. Linie Appearing on the lists after 1879 you will find this column giving the name of the transatlantic company. There were quite a few odd abbreviations used, and the British lines had Norwegian names. The White Star Line was often called "Hvide Stjerne Linien, often abbreviated "Hv. st", "H. Stjerne" or "Hvide". Anchor Line was called "Anker Linien", often listed just as "Anker". Skipet (or Skibet) In this column you will find the name of the ship the emigrant left the port Norway. Note that this in most cases, is not the ship on which the emigrant arrived to America on, but a feeder ship to ports in England or an other European country. The last sailing ships going directly from Norway to America departed in 1875. The steamships took a greater percentage every year starting in the middle of the 1860s, and most of the emigrants we are tracing in the police lists traveled on steamships via an other European country. The most common route was via the port of Hull in England, and from there by train to Liverpool. You can find out more about the destination of the ships from our annual ship index. To find the name of the ship on which the emigrant crossed the Atlantic, you must find the name of the transatlantic company he had purchased tickets from. After 1880 this will be listed in most of the protocols, but prior to this they only listed the name of the agent. To see a list of the agents and what companies they represented, follow the link further down on this page. When you have identified the name of the transatlantic company, the next step is to find the names of the ships belonging to that company. Then you must trace down the lists of the ships which departed Europe in the nearest one or two weeks after the emigrant is thought to have departed from Norway. Usually an arrival should be expected about 3 week after departure from Norway +- a few days. The voyage from Norway to Hull would take from 3 to 4 days. Then another day across the country by train to the departure port. Some times the emigrants would have to wait for a few days in England, so you should allow some room. Then the transatlantic crossing would last for about 7 - 9 days, all depending on what ship they traveled on. When you know what ships to look for, a systematic search of the passenger lists from NARA or NAC can be done. See also the article about the The British Board of Trade outbound passenger lists below. Frakt og innskriving In this column we will find information about how much the emigrant had paid for the ticket, or of the ticket was prepaid in America. There might also be other business information. Kontraktens dato This is the date when the contact was signed, which would in most cases be when the ticket was bought. Note that this is not necessarily the date when the emigrant departed. Når forevist This is the date the contract was signed by the police Anmerkninger Here we find different comments and notes, like if the emigrant had permission from the army to emigrate. Fragtbeløp Information about how much the emigrant had paid for the ticket, or if it was prepaid in America Dampskib eller seilskib This column replaced the column called "Skibet" after 1879. In this column you will find the name of the ship on which the emigrant left Norway. Note that this ship, in most cases, is not the same ship on which he arrived to America, but a feeder ship to ports in England or ports in other European countries. Unfortunately some of the police lists does not contain this column, like the ones for Bergen. You can find out more about the destination of the ships our annual ship index. In some cases the name of the ship will not appear in this column, that is if the emigrant did not embark the ship in Trondheim. You might find "via Christiania" or "via X.ania", which indicates that the emigrant embarked the ship in Christiania (Oslo). They will then probably have traveled from Trondheim to Christiania by train. Chances are that they will also be listed in the Christiania lists. To find the name of the ship on which the emigrant crossed the Atlantic, you must track the name of the transatlantic company he had purchased tickets from. See the column for "Skibet" further up. Kontr. dato This is the date when the contract was signed, probably when the ticket was bought, not necessarily the date of departure Forev. dato This is the date the contract was signed by the police, often the day before the actual departure.

Agents of different transatlantic companies in Trondheim 1867 - 1879: Norwegian emigration records that have survived in the Norwegian National archive "Statsarkiv": - Christiania (Kristiania, Oslo): 1867 - 1966; original is kept by Oslo Statsarkiv - Fredrikstad 1883 - 1890; origial is kept at Oslo original - Christiansand (Kristiansand): 1873 - 1961; original is kept by Kristiansands Statsarkiv - Arendal: (1903 - 1919) original is kept by Kristiansands Statsarkiv - Bergen: 1874 - 1960; original is kept by Bergen Statsarkiv - Ålesund: 1879 - 1925; original kept by Trondheim Statsarkiv - Kristiansund 1882 - 1959; original is kept by Trondheim Statsarkiv - Trondhjem (Trondheim): 1867 - 1926; original is kept by Trondheim Statsarkiv - Larvik: 1887 - 1970; original kept at Kongsberg Statsarkiv - Sandefjord: 1904 - 1921; original kept at Kongsberg Statsarkiv - Stavanger 1925 - 1956, The Stavanger emigration records pre 1929 were destroyed by a fire. - Stavanger 1903 - 1925 "Utvandrersenteret" in Stavanger is working to reconstruct some of the lists. Online resources in Norway: Most of the Norwegian Police emigration records mentioned above are digitalized, or in the progress of being digitalized, and will be found online at the Digitalarkivet. The Digitalarkivet (The Digital Archive), is very powerful online source for Norwegian genealogy. It is a joint project between The National Archives of Norway, The regional Archive of Bergen and The Department of History, University of Bergen. At the Digitalarkivet you will also find the Norwegian National censuses of 1801, 1865, 1900 for online searching. You will also find passports issued for travel to America from Bergen 1842-1860, passenger lists Bergen-Quebec 1865-1873, ship's list, Bergen-New York 1871-1873. Not all of the records are online yet, but new parts are added all the time. There is also a variety of other sources available from the digitalarkivet, and new material is being added every week. This should be the number one place to start your Norwegian genealogy. Digitalarkivet - The Christiania White Star Line records 1883 - 1923 have survived, and is kept by Oslo Statsarkiv. There was also a protocol for Arendal, and maybe one for Drammen, which have been lost. It is possible however, to find lists from various police offices, which have not been microfilmed. From Ålesund for example, the lists start earlier than the films, but they are in poor condition. The lists have been filmed by the LDS, and you should be able to order copies from the LDS Family History Centers. Microfilms and fiches can also be purchased from The Riksarkivet in Norway. The 35 mm rolls costs NOK 12,91 per meter (average 30 meters), and the 16 mm rolls costs NOK 230 (regardless of length). A fiche costs about NOK 12,25. These prices are inclusive of 24 % sales tax which should be deducted when exported outside Norway. (rates of 1999) The National Library of Norway (Nasjonalbiblioteket), Norwegian-Amarican collection keeps records of 1st and 2nd class passengers traveling with the Norwegian America Line. Aalesund list of 1882. Norwegian church records. This is another source of finding emigrants from Norway. When someone wanted to move from the area where they lived, they needed some kind of identification paper. I a stranger was not able to present an id he could be put in jail. The usual way of getting such identification papers was to ask for an attestation from the church. The church would then note this in their records, and was keeping records of both those who left the parish and those who moved to the parish. However these records are not easy to use, as there are no indexes, and therefore it is time-consuming looking through them. They were not used consequently during the time they existed, and there might be lacunas for some parishes. The records in general only gives the names and age of those who moved out, and some scarce information of where they intended to go. You will also find the date given for the moving. Part of a moving list from 1866

The British Board of Trade outbound passenger lists

An other valuable source for tracing Norwegian emigrants is the British Board of Trade outbound passenger lists. Dating from 1890 to 1960 these were compiled for the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade. With no other immigration or emigration records required to be compiled at this period, these represent the only way of identifying travelers passing through British ports en route for the United States, Canada and elsewhere. Deposited some years ago at the Public Record Office in Kew, England, they remain unfilmed and unindexed, but available to the public for searching. The British lists are held in two classes: BT26 - Passenger Lists, Inwards, 1878-1888 and 1890-1960 BT27 - Passenger Lists, Outwards, 1890-1960 These records have limitations, the main being that the two classes are not intended to record the names of every passenger entering or leaving British ports. Briefly, inbound lists show names of passengers arriving in the UK from ships which began their voyage outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, regardless of where the passengers embarked. Outbound lists contain the names of passengers leaving the UK on ships bound for ports outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, regardless of where the passengers were due to disembark. Lists for ships travelling between European/Mediterranean ports into or out of British ports, were retained only for a three week period before being destroyed. This has great significance for those tracing Norwegian emigrants, for it means that there are no surviving records showing these passengers arriving into ports on the east coast of England or Scotland. Their means of travel is well documented and we know that having arrived into a port on the east coast they then were transported by train to their departure port where they boarded a transatlantic liner for the final leg of their voyage. It is at this point that the British lists come into their own. Because the ships were bound for ports outside Europe, the names of all passengers embarking on these ships were shown and this is where the names of the Norwegian emigrants will be found. From 1890 up to 1906 when the passing of a new Merchant Shipping Act brought different requirements for recording the nationality of 'alien' passengers, the only way of identifying such emigrants was a tick in the column stating 'foreigner.' Searching the lists at this period requires an understanding of Norwegian surnames and spellings in order to spot them in amongst a melee of other nationalities. After 1906, the recording of alien passengers changed. From this date, the aliens are separated from British passengers and split between two categories, Aliens - Transmigrants (A), and Aliens - Non-Transmigrants (B). Category A Transmigrants record Norwegians and others passing through the UK bearing through-tickets. From this date, the name of the steamship line bringing these passengers into the UK should be shown along with the nationality of the emigrant. There are a significant number of lists which go beyond legal requirements - not only do they show the name of the steamship line which brought the emigrant to the UK, but also the name of the ship and the date of arrival into a specified port in the UK. Throughout the rest of the period to 1960, there are little changes relating to the recording of transmigrant passengers. British lists contain only basic biographical information. The precise information legally required varied over the years, but in general is likely to show the following information: Surname; first name plus sometimes middle initial; age; occupation; class of travel; whether travelling alone or accompanied by husband or wife (not necessarily meaning whether or not married); nationality, steamship line which brought passenger to the UK, country of intended future permanent residence (of more than one year's duration). The earliest lists can prove disappointing, with sometimes details only of cabin passengers and no note of the name of steerage passengers. The lists of cabin passengers are most unlikely to contain anything of use to those searching for the average emigrant. A word about the filing of the lists, and some points which may be useful to bear in mind when considering a search - the lists are boxed in annual sequence, and within each year, are filed in alphabetical order of departure port. Within the records for each port, the lists are boxed in monthly order. As previously explained, the lists are not filmed and not indexed. Without the name of the transatlantic ship, there are no finding aids. Searching is time-consuming in these old documents, many falling to pieces, or so faded as to make searching difficult. Complicated (to the uninitiated) naming patterns can mean that a passenger may be difficult to identify. Searchers with problems locating a passenger may find it useful to remember the following. The usual route taken by these passengers was a Hull arrival, and a subsequent departure through Liverpool, but it should be borne in mind that departures from Greenock or London are not uncommon. Emigrants bound for the United States may have entered the continent through a Canadian port, and lists for ships heading for Canada should be included in a search if a passenger proves hard to locate on the expected route. If a passenger's departure from Christiania can be located, their departure from the UK is likely to have been within the following seven days, though some appear to have been delayed for up to another week or more, for reasons which are unclear. The discovery of the name of the ticket agent in Norway can often reveal the valuable clue of the name of the steamship line which was to carry the emigrant on their transatlantic voyage. Any searcher who has a rough date of sailing but no specific ship name to help them in their search, should expect to spend several hours searching lists but persistence usually pays off, and a photocopy may be obtained showing this part of an emigrant's voyage to a new life. As these records are not microfilmed and therefore are hard to access, we recommend to those who want information from this source, to contact one of our friends, Debbie Beavis. Debbie is a professional researcher working with the Board of Trade passenger lists at the Public Record Office in Kew, England. She has a special interest in transmigration through Great Britain and undertakes searches in the records for a small fee. You can reach her through her web site.

Discussion

In the years before 1853 most Norwegians Immigrated through New York. These immigrants came as steerage passengers on sailing vessels. From 1853 the tide changed, and most Norwegians entered through Quebec. Towards the end of the decade, and in to the 1900th century, New York again became the debarkation point for the majority of the Norwegian emigrants. If your ancestors were among those emigrating before 1853, you should have a good chance of finding them on a passenger list to New York or another US port. As mentioned earlier, the Canadians did not begin the archiving of passenger lists before 1865 (for the port of Quebec). Norwegian records of emigrants did not start until 1867. This means that for the majority of Norwegian emigrants leaving from 1853 up to 1865, there are no surviving passenger lists. Many of these emigrants might be listed in police passport lists and Norwegian parish lists, but these do not give any information about what ships they traveled on. Most of the Norwegian emigrants traveled directly from Norway to "Amerika" on sailing ships before 1870. In 1866 the majority traveled on sailing ships. After 1874 all the Norwegian emigrants bound for North America traveled by steamship. The steamships did not sail directly from Norway, but from other European ports (mainly from Britain and Germany). All of the emigrants traveling with foreign steamship companies had to travel via another port as transmigrants (mainly to Hull, then from Liverpool). This means that they would not arrive in America on the same ship in which they left Norway. Exceptions: Passengers traveling on the Norwegian American Steamship Co between 1871 and 1875, passengers traveling on the Thingvalla Line ships (service began in 1882), later the Scandinavian America Line to NY. From 1913 the Norwegian America Line started a regular service directly from Norway to NYC. For emigrants traveling directly from Norway to North America after 1866 there are lists created both in Norway (by the police) and at the debarkation port. For emigrants traveling via Britain after 1866, there were lists created in Norway (by the police), in Britain (by The British Board of Trade available from 1890). and at the debarkation port in the US or Canada. All regular emigrants will be listed in the Norwegian police lists after they began in 1867. There were also many irregular emigrants, such as sailors jumping ship. It is possible to find information about those in the Norwegian sailors records, they will not appear on any passenger lists. When comparing the lists generated in the embarkation port in Norway, with those generated in Britain and in the debarkation ports, it is surprising to find variations in the way which names were recorded and in other given information. One must keep in mind that the different lists were not created with genealogical research in mind, but for other purposes. Even so, they are now valuable sources for genealogists and historians.

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