Immigration records

There is no complete collection of records for immigrants who came to Canada before 1865.

Prior to 1865 very few passenger lists survived, many of the surviving records held at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) may be searched in the Immigrants before 1865 collection.

Learn about what sources are available on our Immigration records before 1865 page.

The government began keeping passenger lists to use as immigration records in 1865. Most of LAC’s passenger lists date from 1865 to 1935. They are official government records of passengers arriving in Canada by ship. These lists were not standardized until the twentieth century. They may contain information such as:

• the name of the ship
• port and date of arrival
• name, age and country of origin
• occupation
• destination
• amount of money carried

Learn more about passenger lists or search in the Passenger lists 1865-1935 collection.

For the years 1919 to 1924 individual Form 30A records were used to document arrivals by sea.

The government started recording information about people arriving in Canada through the United States border in 1908. Several different border entry forms have been used.

The Border entry research guide can help you access these records.

From 1869 to the late 1930s, over 100,000 children were sent to Canada from the British Isles through assisted immigration. Most are called “Home children” because they went from an emigration agency's home for children in Britain to its Canadian receiving home. They were then usually placed with families in rural Canada.

Learn more about Home children or search the Home children collection.

Many poor immigrants relied on benevolent societies (charities) for help when they arrived in North America. The Montreal Emigrant Society’s (est. 1831) main purpose was to provide transportation and provisions for immigrants who had arrived at Montréal from Québec and were destined for settlement in different parts of Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).

Learn more about the Montreal Emigrant Society or the search the records.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada actively recruited three classes of immigrants: farmers, agricultural workers and domestic servants, including porters. To attract domestic servants, the federal government developed an immigration policy intended to draw suitable British single women, aged 17 to 35.

Learn more about porters and domestics or search the collection.

Grosse Île was first established as a quarantine station in 1832 to prevent the spread of cholera into the country.

Learn more about Grosse île or search the records.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) holds government records relating to Chinese immigrants (Record Group 76).

Learn more about Immigrants from China, 1885-1952 or search the collection.

Search for names of Ukrainian Immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1891 and 1930.

Learn more about Ukrainian immigrants, 1891-1930 or search the records.

Search this database for the names of immigrants from the Russian Empire who had contact with the Russian consular offices in Canada.

Learn more about Immigrants from the Russian Empire, 1898 to 1922 or search the collection.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) holds the records of immigrants who arrived from 1936 to the present.

Library and Archives Canada does not have copies of those records.

You can submit an application to access records held by IRCC by using one of their forms:

• Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Online Request
• Application for a Verification of Status (VOS) or Replacement of an Immigration Document

You can address questions about those forms to IRCC.

You might find references to immigration in various federal government records.

Immigration Branch Central Registry Files (RG76)

Most of the records relate to administrative, policy and operational matters from 1893 to the mid-1900s. There are only a few files on individual immigrants and in those files, the person’s name usually appears in the title. There are other files relating to groups of immigrants. The word “lists” usually appears in those file titles. Examples include records relating to:

• immigration reception buildings, sometimes called “sheds”, detention buildings and hospitals where immigrants were treated
• medical examinations
• refugees
• immigrants from specific countries or ethnic and religious groups
• the Empire Settlement Act, such as the 3000 British Families Settlement Scheme
• organizations that helped immigrants come to Canada, such as the Salvation Army and the Overseas Settlement Committee

Department of the Interior (RG15)

• There are some records relating to immigration to the western provinces in the period from 1892 to 1916.

Department of Agriculture (RG17)

The department of Agriculture was responsible for immigration from 1868 to 1892. Some of the files include names of immigrants. The file titles do not always specify if names are included.

• Some RG17 files relate to home children. Search those files by name in our Home Children records collection.

To search within these files, click on one of the links above and enter one or more search terms:

• relevant keywords such as: immigration, immigrant, emigrant, settler, settlement, refugees, lists, building, hospital, shed, detention, medical examination
• a person’s name
• a place or province in Canada or another country
• the name of an organization

There was no central register of deportees until the 1960s. Few deportation case files before that have survived. You can find lists of deportees in some records. For information on finding those resources, consult our guide on deportation records.

During the First and Second World Wars, the Canadian government called some groups of people “enemy aliens”. This meant the government saw them as a possible threat because of where their families came from. The label was often unfair, and it led to strict rules, loss of rights, and sometimes being moved or deported.

Japanese Canadians were one of the groups targeted during the Second World War. But they were not the only ones. In earlier years, people with Ukrainian, German, Italian, and other Central or Eastern European backgrounds were also treated this way.

Help accessing records relating to their experiences can be found in the pages related to each ethno-cultural group or our internment camp guide.

If a person left Canada, there may be other sources of information:

• During the Second World War, women and children wanting to leave the country needed permission, such as a woman wishing to marry a serviceman in England or a widow or orphan returning to Scotland to live with family.

  You can find names and details in lists in Regulations to control travel of women and children entering or leaving Canada during wartime, 1940-1946 (RG76, volumes 455-456, file 694686):

  • Microfilm C-10397
  • Microfilm C-10398
• The National Archives in England has a collection of inward passenger lists, 1878 to 1960. Many of those lists are for ships leaving from Canadian ports. The lists are digitized and indexed in the subscription website Ancestry, which can be accessed for free in-person at many libraries including LAC service points.
• The names of Canadians entering the United States were usually recorded in American border records from 1895 to 1956. Those lists are often referred to as the St. Alban’s lists. Most of the records are digitized and indexed on Ancestry and the free website FamilySearch.
• If your ancestor moved to Maine, there may be a record of them in the Maine State Archives’ collection of digitized Alien Registrations.