Find your ancestors in Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1846-1851

Explore the names of passengers who entered the United States through the port of Baltimore, Maryland from 1846 to 1851, particularly those fleeing the Great Irish Famine. Find out exciting new facts about your family’s journey to America, such as information about the ship, occupations, and other relatives.

What can these records tell me?

Each name in the collection corresponds to an entry on the original ship’s passengers lists. The amount of information for each passenger may vary, but the Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1846-1851 usually includes:

  • Name
  • Age
  • Occupation
  • Country of origin
  • Ship departure port
  • Date of arrival
  • Ship name
  • People with same last name on this voyage


    • Discover more about Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1846-1851

    The Baltimore Passenger List records overlap with the height of the Great Irish Famine, in which millions of families left Ireland, often for America. As a port city, Baltimore received many of these Irish immigrants, along with others from England, Scotland, Wales, and additional countries. In fact, nearly a third of all migrants to Baltimore between 1830 and 1860 were originally from Ireland. While many of these new immigrants remained in Baltimore, some continued to travel further west to states like Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. Families often chose to settle in areas where distant relatives or where others from their former homeland resided.

    Passenger lists are just one of many records that detail your family’s journey to the United States. These records can include errors or mistakes in spellings, occupations, and ages. Birth years in this collection were calculated from an individual’s stated age and the year of immigration. To find more information about your relatives, explore local newspapers, as well as census and vital records. Naturalization records are another useful source, as many immigrants strove to become American citizens, filing papers for their naturalization after their arrival.

    These records are provided in partnership with the JFK Trust. The original records are held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C.