Where Are Passenger Lists for People Arriving in Buffalo?
To quote Chris Andrle, former Erie County GenWeb Coordinator, “No customs or immigration passenger lists exist for Buffalo. Most immigrants to Buffalo arrived via New York City and should be found in the New York City Passenger lists. Because of Niagara Falls, there is no direct water route from Europe to Buffalo, therefore, all immigrants arriving at the Port of Buffalo had to first land at another U.S. or Canadian port. Some immigrants simply walked over one of the Niagara River bridges from Canada.” To better understand those border crossing records, see Everton’s online tutorial, United States – Canadian Border Crossing Records. See also this page describing Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Buffalo, Lewiston, Niagara Falls, and Rochester, New York, 1902-1954 on 165 rolls of microfilm at the National Archives Starting in 1825, thousands of immigrants traveled to Buffalo on the Erie Canal. According to the New York State Archives, except for the years 1827-1829, no passengers’ names we
