On 12 May, MyHeritage added United States, Incoming Passenger Lists from Canada, 1895–1957 to its platform. The collection’s 5.2 million records typically include the passenger’s name, date and place of birth, last residence, departure point, and date and place of arrival, each linked to an image of the original document.
Where does the data actually come from?
One frustration with MyHeritage is that it rarely tells you the original source of a collection. To illustrate, take John D’Arcy Northwood, who arrived in Vancouver from Manila on 23 May 1934. MyHeritage’s record for Northwood gives his birthplace (Wolverhampton, England), last residence (Honolulu), departure point (Manila), and arrival (Vancouver, 23 May 1934), but no clue as to where the underlying record is held.
I’m guessing MyHeritage got it from FamilySearch, which holds United States, Border Crossings from Canada to United States, 1895–1956. FamilySearch is transparent about its sourcing: it explains that the records derive from various NARA microfilm publications, specifically Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives and Records Administration).
Ancestry goes further still. Its corresponding collection, U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895–1960, not only identifies the originating NARA record group (RG 85, Series M1465) but also links to a full breakdown of the document types included, in this case, manifests of passengers arriving through Canadian Pacific ports, held at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
All three platforms draw on the same underlying records. But if you need to cite your source properly, or want to understand what you’re actually looking at, FamilySearch and Ancestry both give you considerably more to work with than MyHeritage.
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