CONNIE LENZEN, Certified Genealogist E-mail: clenzen@dialoegon.net

Canadian Border Crossings By Connie Lenzen An article written for the Vancouver Columbian newspaper.

A Columbian reader, tracing her ancestors who came from Canada, asks about the possibility of finding Canadian border crossing lists. Due to our close proximity to Canada, many Washingtonians have similar questions.

Aliens who arrived in the United States via Canadian border ports from January 1895 to June 30, 1954 are inventoried in the "St. Albans District Manifests."

St. Albans is in Vermont, and it is a border crossing town. Don't be misled by the title, for the record group contains information from every border crossing post along the Canadian-United States border.

Alien passenger lists on US Immigration forms are included in this record group as well as monthly lists of aliens crossing the border on trains. The monthly lists are arranged by month and then alphabetically by port name.

Our reader's grandparents were born in Wisconsin and North Dakota. They moved from the US to Saskatchewan about 1910 and became naturalized Canadian citizens. After a while, they went back to the States. Due to their Canadian citizenship, they were aliens when they returned to the United States. Therefore, we should be able to find them in the St. Albans Lists.

The soundex index to the Lists contains the information found on the original passenger manifest. Both the manifests and the index have been microfilmed on 937 reels and are available through local Family History Center Libraries and at the Seattle branch of the National Archives.

The index card for the reader's grandparents was found on Family History Library film #1472996. It showed that the family arrived in the US through the Port of Winnipeg, Manitoba on 28 March 1917. The grandfather was born in Blair, Wisconsin, the grandmother was born in Hillsboro, North Dakota, and they migrated to Canada in 1908. Information about them included: their address in Canada; their nearest relative in Canada; their destination in the United States; the name of the relative they were joining in the US; and their height, hair and eye color, and distinguishing marks.

The reader can order the microfilm containing the Manifest at her local Family History Center Library, and this may show other relatives who traveled with the family. The films are cataloged under United States - Emigration and Immigration.

I found my grandmother's sister's family in the indexes. They came through Blaine, Washington in 1915 after a period of time in the British Columbia silver mines. My grandmother's brother was with them, but his admission was denied, and he was deported to Slovenia. That is a story for another time.

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