The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Pacific Region, in San
Bruno, California (http://archives.gov/pacific/san-francisco/index.html) houses records of
federal agency offices in northern California, Hawaii, all of Nevada except Clark
County, and American Samoa. Many of these records relate to immigration and other
aspects of family history and genealogy. A complete list of available resources
can be found at http://archives.gov/pacific/san-francisco/index.html.
Some of the most interesting records are the investigation case files of people
who entered the United States through the ports of San Francisco and Honolulu during
the period of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, 1882-1943. During the early 1900s, the
exclusion provisions and investigative case files were extended to cover other Asian
groups. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) created these case files
to document investigations of people arriving or departing through the ports of
San Francisco between 1882 and 1955 and Honolulu between 1903 and 1955.
While there are files on many non-Asians, most of the files concern Asians and,
of that, the overwhelming majority are Chinese. Additional information on NARA's
holding concerning Chinese Immigration and Chinese in the United States is available
at http://www.archives.gov
Search for case numbers now.
Learn More About the NARA Files. Find out what's in a case file and how to
do a search.
Start a search. Search for case numbers now.
Make an appointment. To see the records at the NARA office, it is best to
make an appointment by calling (650) 238-3501 or sending an e-mail to
sanbruno.archives@nara.gov.
Volunteer to help. NARA has thousands of case files that need to be indexe
so that they can be searched. If you would like to volunteer to assist with this
public service project, contact the archives at (650) 238-3501 or send an e-mail
to sanbruno.archives@nara.gov.
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