Emigration records list the names of people leaving an area, and immigration records list those coming into an area. The United States Research Outline (30972) “Emigration and Immigration” section lists several important sources for finding information about immigrants. These nationwide sources include many references to people who settled in Minnesota. The Tracing Immigrant Origins Research Outline (34111) introduces the principles, search strategies, and additional record types you can use to identify an immigrant ancestor’s original hometown.

Pre-statehood residents of Minnesota were primarily American Indians and French and British immigrants. After 1858 settlers in Minnesota generally came from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New York. After 1860 thousands of immigrants came from Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, and Denmark.

Minnesota has no ports of entry. Most immigrants to Minnesota arrived at a major eastern port such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, or Quebec. Some Minnesota immigrants prior to 1855 entered through the port of New Orleans. The Family History Library has records for the ports of New York, Boston, and New Orleans beginning about 1820. Philadelphia records start in 1800. See the United States Research Outline (30972) for details. Quebec port records begin in 1865. Settlers generally followed the Great Lakes and the railroads to Illinois and Wisconsin, or they traveled up the Mississippi River. Steamboats and vessels traveling the lakes and rivers were not required to keep passenger lists.

Lists of persons coming from Canada to the United States were not recorded until 1895. Persons who crossed the border after that year might be listed in Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries Through the St. Albans, Vt. District, 1895–1924, and other sources mentioned in the “Emigration and Immigration” section of the Canada Research Outline (34545). These and other border entry indexes and lists are also described in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

CANADA – EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATIONUNITED STATES – EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

Information about immigrant groups from eastern and southern Europe is at the Immigration History Research Center described in the “Archives and Libraries” section of this outline.

To find books about migration in Minnesota, use a Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

MINNESOTA – EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

MINNESOTA – MINORITIES.

Return to top of page

Previous Document   Next Document

©1998, 2001 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. No part of this document may be reprinted, posted on-line, or reproduced in any form for any purpose without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
[FamilySearch^TM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/9/2001]