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July 7. 2006
Surprises from the St. Albans Canadian Border Crossing Records: John M. Hoenig discovers these confusing records can lead to breakthroughs
by - John M. Hoenig

This article originally appeared in Family Chronicle Magazine in the
May/June 2005 issue, p. 38-39. Used by permission of the author.

If
your relative arrived in the United States between 1895 and 1952 you might
do very well to consider the Canadian border crossing records known as the
St. Albans Records. These records are poorly known, misunderstood and
somewhat confusing. But, they are a treasure trove, and useful in
surprising ways.

A Three-day Trip to Montreal
My father
and his family lived in Nice, France, for a short time before they came to
America via the port of New York in June 1940, as visitors.

Two
years later, in order to become permanent residents in the US, they had to
leave the country and re-enter. The easiest way to do this was to take the
Delaware and Hudson train to Montreal.

I knew there should be a
record of their re-entry into the country, but I couldn't imagine it would
tell me anything interesting. I already had the passenger manifest for
their arrival as visitors. But, the experts advise that you should get all
of the records for all of your relatives. So, on one of my trips to the
National Archives, I decided to look at the border crossing records, and I
found... absolutely nothing.

Then I read Marian Smith's article on
border crossing records (see further readings) in which she described the
records as extremely valuable though confusing. I decided to try again and
this time I hit pay dirt: the card manifest for their return.

Under
"nearest relative or friend in country whence applicant came" was listed
Ladislaus Honig. He was my grandfather's nephew and was living in
"unoccupied France". This was quite a jolt. I had never heard of Ladislaus
despite having interviewed my grandmother about family history. So, I'd
discovered a new relative. Two years earlier, when my father's family
first arrived in New York, they listed their neighbor in Nice as their
nearest relative or friend back home. This suggests that Ladislaus may
have arrived in France between 1938 and 1940.

There was a flood of
similar, short trips to Canada from the US starting in 1940 when the
immigration laws changed. People who had entered the US illegally in the
1930s or even earlier, or who overstayed their visit, needed to re-enter
the country to become legal residents. Thus, these records may be
surprisingly useful.

US Records of Canadian Arrivals, 1895-1952
People
are very familiar with Ellis Island passenger manifests. These were filled
out by the steamship companies for the US Government. In the 1880s, at the
height of immigration, many people came to the US from Europe via Canada.
The steamship companies promoted this as a cheaper and easier alternative
for direct travel to the US. The US Government then decided it needed
better records so it negotiated with the steamship companies to have them
fill out separate passenger manifests for those declaring their intention
to continue on to the US. Thus, passenger manifests for ships arriving at
ports like Halifax, St. John, Montreal and Quebec City were prepared on US
Government forms just like those used at Ellis Island and other US ports.
Later, name indexes were prepared for these manifests so it is not
necessary to know the ship, port and date in order to find the manifest.

Some
people arrived in Canada without the intention of immediately continuing
on to the States. In this case, their names should appear on the separate
passenger manifests prepared by the steamship companies for the Canadian
government. These manifests are in the Canadian National Archives.
However, if a person later decided to come to the US as an immigrant, the
US border crossing record should list the original arrival of the person
in Canada. Thus, the US record can be extremely useful for finding the
Canadian record.

The Record Groups
The National Archives
has issued eight microfilm publications pertaining to Canadian border
crossing records, including the passenger manifests for ships arriving at
Canadian ports. There are both alphabetical and Soundex indexes to the
names in the records, although it is not always clear which index to use.
M1481 and M1482 are alphabetical indexes. The two record groups differ
only in the ports of entry they cover. I
thought my family's records would be indexed in this group but they
weren't. I then tried the Soundex index in M1463. This is where I found my
family's records. The "index" actually consisted of "card manifests" that
contained all of the information collected. Note that St. Albans refers to
the central data collection point. Originally, all the records were held
in Montreal but later the Immigration and Naturalization Service
transferred them to the St. Albans district office and the records became
known as the St. Albans records. This choice of names is unfortunate as it
undoubtedly causes some people to miss their significance. M1464 and M1465
contain ship passenger manifests for Canadian ports. These look just like
the manifests for ships arriving at US ports such as New York. The two
record groups differ only in the ports they cover.

These records
are poorly understood and somewhat confusing but they contain real
treasures. If you suspect a relative entered the US via Canada, or left
the US in order to re-enter for immigration purposes, it may be well worth
the effort to look for border crossing records.

Further readings:
Smith, Marian L., 2000. By Way of Canada: U.S. Records of Immigration
Across the U.S. Canadian Border, 1895-1954 (St. Albans Lists). Prologue
32(3). Available online at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2000/fall/us-canada-immigration-records-1.html