Angel Island Research Books and Websites

The immigration station on the northeastern edge of Angel Island opened in January 1910. Thousands of immigrants including Chinese, Japanese, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Mexicans and others passed through, many enduring terrible treatment and conditions. To learn more about your immigrant ancestor’s experience at Angel Island, check out these resources.

Websites

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Angel Island Immigration Station Poetry

Angel Island: Immigrant Journeys of Chinese Americans

Chinese Immigration and the Chinese in the United States

Immigration through Angel Island, Digital Public Library of America

Chinese Emigration and Immigration, FamilySearch

Angel Island: Research Guides, UC Berkeley Library Resources

National Archives and Record Administration Early Arrivals Record Search 

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Pacific Region

USCIS Genealogy Program

Books

At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 by Erika Lee (University of North Carolina Press)

Laws Harsh As Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law by Lucy E. Salyer (University of North Carolina Press)

In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America by Charles J. McClain (University of California Press)

Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition by Emma Woo Louie (McFarland & Company)

Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943 by Sucheng Chan (Temple University Press)

Last updated, April 2023

Researching an Angel Island Ancestor

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Family Tree Magazine