Armenian Immigration Project
Abstracts of Primary Source Material for the Study of
Armenian Immigration to North America through 1930

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Other Reports:
Summary by Birth Place | Summary by Birth Place by Joining Address | Summary by Destination Port | Summary by Joining Address | Summary by Last Residence | Summary by Origin Port | Summary by Ship | Summary by Top Joining Street Address

Ship Manifests Report - Summary By Top Joining Street Address

On ship manifest forms used for immigration to the USA, the passenger was asked to indicate the address of a relative or friend whom they were joining. I will refer to this as the joining address. In the earlier records, it often consisted of just the name of the city or state. By the mid-1890s, the complete street address was usually given. Instead of a street address, sometimes the place of intended employment (e.g., Malleable Iron Co.) was listed. Post office (P. O) boxes were also used. In rural areas (e.g., Fresno County and Tulare County, California), mail delivery and addresses were organized by Route (R. F. D., or Rural Free Delivery), and then by (P. O.) Box. Prior to World War 1, many of the Armenian passengers to North American were men whose intent was to come temporarily for employment and to earn money to send (or take) back to Turkey to better their families' economic conditions. These men (known as sojourners) often lived in boardinghouses with other Armenian men. Some of the joining addresses (such as 98 Common Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts or 86 Douglas Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island) appear again and again.

Over time, street names may change, especially the suffixes (Ave., St., Blvd., Rd., etc.). Numbering of houses on the street may change, as well. For example, 208 Solvay Ave. in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan (in the 1910's) was changed around 1920 to 519 S. Solvay Ave. It is now known as 519 S. Solvay St.

The Ship Manifests database table currently represents some of the estimated 100,000 to 125,000 arrivals of Armenians to seaports in North America through 1930. Most of the abstracts are from ship manifests to New York (Castle Garden before 1892, Ellis Island in 1892 and later). Other important seaports for arriving passengers include Providence, Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco in the USA, and Halifax, Quebec, and St. John (New Brunswick) in Canada. Passengers also arrived at a number of smaller seaports. Armenians boarded ships from seaports on the Atlantic Ocean in western Europe, from the Mediterranean Sea, from American seaports in Cuba and Argentina, and Pacific seaports in Japan and China. Some even left from seaports on the Black Sea, Arctic Ocean, and Baltic Sea. Most of my early research consisted of a systematic abstraction of ship manifests for steamships traveling from French ports on the Atlantic Ocean (Le Havre, Cherbourg, Boulogne, and Bordeaux) to New York, between 1892 and 1914. That was followed by a focus on steamships bringing Armenian refugees to America after the end of WW1, primarily in the period between 1920 and 1924. Over 4,000 "ship trips" have been searched so far. (A ship trip is a voyage between a source port and a destination port. Many steamships gathered passengers from multiple source ports on the same voyage.) As I research Armenians in other primary sources (like military draft registrations, censuses, and naturalization records), I try to find those same individuals on one or more ship manifests. When I research a ship manifest, I abstract all Armenians on that particular ship trip. Thousands of more voyages remained to be researched.

I have also started adding entries from border crossing documents from Mexico and Canada to the USA into this table. These are especially important for those Armenians who came to the USA through Mexico, since ship manifests into Mexico from overseas are not available (as they are for Canada). You can distinguish a border crossing from a ship arrival by the absence of the ship name.

To see what ship trips have been searched for inclusion into this database table, select the following link: Ship Manifests Scope

Several options are presented below for customizing this report. The report is sorted in descending order by total count for the row, and the entries whose row count is less than 1% of the grand total count are suppressed (not shown). The suppression filter can also be unchecked to show all rows and the percentage threshold can be increased.

     Suppress Lowest Counts?:  Yes   * 0.1%

Entries found = 18,331

Joining Street AddressTotal% of Total
98 Common St. / Lawrence, MA, USA5180.7%
Malleable Iron Co. / E. St. Louis, IL, USA3710.5%
Malleable Iron Co. / Troy/Watervliet, NY, USA3670.5%
317 E. 28th St. / New York, NY, USA2260.3%
86 Douglas Ave. / Providence, RI, USA2110.3%
39 West St. / Milford, MA, USA2000.3%
331 E. 23rd St. / New York, NY, USA1560.2%
85 Douglas Ave. / Providence, RI, USA1560.2%
Box 557 / Whitinsville, MA, USA1470.2%
40 Kneeland St. / Boston, MA, USA1430.2%
1828 D St. / Granite City, IL, USA1430.2%
52 Southbridge St. / Worcester, MA, USA1400.2%
166 Lancaster St. / Portland, ME, USA1390.2%
91 Washington St. / New York, NY, USA1340.2%
230 Common St. / Lawrence, MA, USA1330.2%
125 Charles St. / Lowell, MA, USA1290.2%
321 E. 28th St. / New York, NY, USA1260.2%
309 Columbus Ave. / New York, NY, USA1250.2%
21 Kneeland St. / Boston, MA, USA1250.2%
Hood Rubber Co. / Watertown, MA, USA1250.2%
1312 Buffalo Ave. / Niagara Falls, NY, USA1240.2%
657 2nd Ave. / New York, NY, USA1230.2%
309 2nd St. / Troy, NY, USA1220.2%
Malleable Iron Co. / Brantford, ON, Canada1210.2%
878 Broadway / New York, NY, USA1200.2%
94 Grove St. / Worcester, MA, USA1160.2%
26 1st St. / Providence, RI, USA1160.2%
2601 3rd Ave. / Watervliet, NY, USA1160.2%
154 E. 27th St. / New York, NY, USA1150.2%
20 Cranston St. / Providence, RI, USA1140.2%
3 Crawford St. / Watertown, MA, USA1120.2%
14 Market St. / Worcester, MA, USA1110.2%
151 E. 26th St. / New York, NY, USA1090.1%
16 Thomas St. / Worcester, MA, USA1050.1%
9 1st St. / Providence, RI, USA1030.1%
53 Cedar St. / Portland, ME, USA960.1%
110 Lexington Ave. / New York, NY, USA930.1%
342 E. 24th St. / New York, NY, USA930.1%
367 Chalkstone Ave. / Providence, RI, USA930.1%
890 Broadway / New York, NY, USA910.1%
109 11th St. / Niagara Falls, NY, USA900.1%
219 Wisconsin St. / Racine, WI, USA890.1%
2611 3rd Ave. / Watervliet, NY, USA890.1%
69 1st St. / Providence, RI, USA870.1%
339 E. 23rd St. / New York, NY, USA840.1%
225 5th Ave. / New York, NY, USA840.1%
73 Lexington Ave. / New York, NY, USA820.1%
328 E. 24th St. / New York, NY, USA810.1%
33 Derry St. / Providence, RI, USA780.1%
515 Main St. / New Britain, CT, USA780.1%
108 Solvay Ave. / Detroit, MI, USA770.1%
2458 Allen Ave. / Niagara Falls, NY, USA750.1%
2451 Allen Ave. / Niagara Falls, NY, USA750.1%
577 10th Ave. / New York, NY, USA740.1%
. . . 
Totals73,052

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