Nebraska Emigration and Immigration

How to Find the Records
Nebraska, being entirely inland, has no seaports. Immigrants would have initially arrived at a port on the coast. To search those records, see United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records.

Online Records

 * 1500s-1900s All U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s at Ancestry; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Nebraska; Also at MyHeritage; index only ($)
 * 1895-1956 United States, Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956 at MyHeritge; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Nebraska

Cultural Groups

 * 1920-1939 Germany, Bremen Emigration Lists, 1920-1939 at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Nebraska
 * Germans Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Nebraska
 * Italians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Nebraska
 * Russians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Nebraska

Passport Records Online

 * 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.

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.
 * 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
Permanent white settlement began at Bellevue in the region south of present-day Omaha. The Indian Intercourse Act of 1834 reserved the rest of Nebraska as part of Indian Territory. Mormon Pioneers were permitted temporary settlement at Winter Quarters from 1846 to 1847, but Nebraska was not officially opened for white settlement until passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854.

Between 1834 and 1854, an estimated 350,000 pioneers passed through the Platte Valley along the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails. Most continued westward rather than settling in Nebraska.

After the Civil War, many Union veterans and other settlers arrived from the eastern United States to claim lands available under the Homestead Act of 1862. These settlers generally were from Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri.

Immigrants from Europe also arrived in search of land. The largest overseas groups came from Germany, Sweden, the British Isles, Bohemia, Canada, and Denmark. In addition, many Germans immigrated from Russia. Small groups of Polish and Italian settlers settled in Omaha in 1885.

Blacks were in Nebraska before the Civil War, but many more arrived in the late nineteenth century, especially in the Omaha area. American Indians had largely been dispossessed of their Nebraska lands and removed to present-day Oklahoma by 1880, but Santee Sioux, Omaha, and Winnebago Indians still live on two small reservations in the state.

New settlement virtually ceased in the 1890s, although a large section of northwest Nebraska was not completely homesteaded until after World War I.

From the 1860's through the early 1900's, many New York City orphans came by train and were adopted by Nebraska families. Information on the orphans' trains is being collected for the Nebraska State Historical Society by Eloise Thomsen, 5843 Grant Street, Omaha, NE 68104.

Records
In the 1850's a major port of entry to Nebraska was New Orleans. Steamboats transported settlers and goods up the Mississippi-Missouri river system to Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters (Florence).

The Civil War and the coming of the railroad in the 1860's put an end to the steamboat business. After that time, overseas immigrants landed at the port of New York and other east coast ports, and then traveled overland to Nebraska.

The Family History Library and the National Archives have passenger lists or indexes for American ports for 1820-1943. More detailed information on these sources is in the United States Emigration and Immigration article.

The Oregon-California Trails Association is an educational organization that promotes the story of the westward migration to Nebraska, among other places. Their site includes a personal name index to trail diaries, journals, reminiscences, autobiographies, newspaper articles, guidebooks and letters at http://www.paper-trail.org/

Records of major ethnic groups, including Blacks, Czechs, Germans, and Germans from Russia, are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog by using the Place-names Search for NEBRASKA - MINORITIES. Records of American Indians are listed in the Place-names Search for NEBRASKA - NATIVE RACES.

Examples of published sources for ethnic groups are:


 * German Immigrants in Nebraska Protestant Church Records


 * Rife, Janet Warkentin. Germans and German-Russians in Nebraska: A Research Guide to Nebraska Ethnic Studies. Lincoln, Nebraska: Center for Great Plains Studies, 1980. (Family History Library .)


 * Rosicky, Rose. A History of Czechs (Bohemians) in Nebraska. 1929. Reprint. Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, 1977. (Family History Library .)