Useful Document for Researching Belgian Immigrants to US

Antwerp Baggage Disinfection Room
"Everything for passengers is done free of charge in this building."

I recently discovered a document on the web site of the Felix Archives (the Antwerp city archives) called Emigration to America (this is a PDF). It seems to date back to 1999, but is still useful, especially considering no documents newer than 75 years ago are available anyways, and this document lists what documents exist in archives related to people living in Antwerp that may have emigrated to the US. The document was put together by the Archivist of the City of Antwerp. The availability dates mentioned are certainly out of date - for example it refers to certain collections available up to 1915, but those collections are now available to at least 1930 if not later. This is because as time goes on, more records are made publicly available.

Some of the interesting records mentioned in the document include registers from hotels and boarding houses, and emigration lists of third-class passengers from 1892 forward (second-class and first-class passengers were not recorded in these registers because American immigration restriction did not apply to them).

Some of the archives mentioned in the document include:

• Antwerp City Archives (Stadsarchief Antwerpen)
• Provincial Archives Antwerp (Provinciaal Archief Antwerpen)
• National Archives Antwerp (Rijksarchief Antwerpen)
• National Archives Beveren (Rijksarchief Beveren)
• National Archives of Belgium, Brussels (Algemeen Rijksarchief Brussel)
• Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brussels (Archief van het Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, Brussel)
• National Archives, The Hague (Algemeen Rijksarchief Den Haag)
• Rotterdam Municipal Archives (Gemeentearchief Rotterdam)

as well as these in the US:

• National Archives and Records Administration
• Ellis Island
• National Archives Regional Center in New York
• New York Municipal Archives

and these genealogy societies:

• Flemish Association for Family Research
• (Vlaamse Vereniging voor Familiekunde)
• Netherlands Genealogical Association

Keep in mind that some of the documents mentioned as being in specific archives (in 1999) are now in different archives. In particular the central immigrant police files are now in the National Archives in Brussels.