The following abbreviations sometimes appear in the first names:
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NOTEIn this page we only describe what has been transcribed to our data base. For a discussion of other available passenger list sources, please visit our page dedicated to Passenger Lists. |
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Our data base currently includes the following:
Please understand that the database represents only a miniscule fraction of the passengers arriving in Cuba. Only a few papers have been reviewed and only some of them carried passenger lists. Many newspapers ceased to publish passenger lists after about 1876, probably because of the advent of steamships carrying as many as 600 passengers in one trip. Please understand also that not all arriving passengers were immigrants. Many, specially after 1850, were visitors (tourists and business men) or military officers (soldiers names were usually not individually listed).
Please refer to our main Passenger Lists page for additional sources.
by Jorge Piñón Cervera
Throughout the second half of the XIX century nearly one hundred thousand Asturians departed their homeland bound for America in search of a better life and employment opportunities, as well as a way of avoiding mandatory military service. Most, four out of five, were bound for Cuba.
Between 1840 and 1870 a group of small shippers ran passenger service between the port of Gijon and the Cuban ports of La Habana and Matanzas. The crossing, a 40-50 days venture, was carried out in sail power vessels such as corvettes, schooners and brigs. The brigs and schooners were two masted sailboats which transported over two hundred passengers in very difficult and crowded conditions. The two masted schooners, medium sized vessels with an average weight of around 200 tons and about 40 meters in length, have their roots in the Antillean balahú and in the North American schooners whose design migrated to Europe at the end of the XVIII century.
Passenger lists from Galician and Asturian ports to Cuba are nearly non existent, and very difficult to locate. Hard and tedious research, along with the support of D. Eduardo Núñez Fernández, Archivist of the Archivo Municipal de Gijón, help to locate passenger lists for nine transatlantic voyages between 1858-1871 carrying over 1200 passengers. Some of the lists name the township of residence of the passenger along with his passport number; others simply list the individual’s name. There are three trips by the brig “Victoria”, two trips by the corvette “Villa de Gijón”, and a trip each by the brigs “Pepe” and “Habana”, a well as a voyage by the schooner “Casualidad”.
Once again we will like to thank the Archivo Municipal de Gijón for its support in this search, as well as the Vigil-Colunga family from Noreña in transcribing the passengers names along with interpreting the difficult calligraphy used during the period.
For the key to the numbers appearing in the first column of the search form please visit our ships list.
To read further about the emigration from Asturias, Galicia and Cataluña to Cuba we suggest the following references (all in Spanish):
Thanks to the labor and courtesy of Miriam Rivera and Dave Chudleigh, the names of 35 passengers who sailed form the Port of Orotava (Puerto de la Cruz de Orotava), Tenerife, Canary Islands to Habana (San Cristobal de La Habana) aboard the vessel Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe y San Juan (3 Mar 1686 to 12 Jun 1683) have been added to the passenger data base.
For the key to the numbers appearing in the first column of the search form please visit our ships list.
Miriam Rivera has posted on her web site a list of sailing vessels that plied the route between the Canary Islands, Puerto Rico and Cuba in the years 1756-1773. She has also posted a list of trips in the years 1680-1687. You can reach these lists of ships and trips by means of this link. No passenger lists other than the above are available.
To read further about the emigration from the Canary Islands to the New World we suggest the following reference (in Spanish):
During the 1800's many cargo and passenger ships arrived daily in Habana and other ports of Cuba. Ship arrivals were usually documented in various newspapers, notably the Diario de la Marina and the Gaceta de la Habana, both official newspapers of Havana. Sometimes, but not always, passenger lists were also published by the newspapers.
The Diario de la Marina was founded in 1844 as the "Organo Oficial del Apostadero de la Habana" (Official Organ of the Port of Havana). This title was suppressed in 19 Jan 1899, when the Diario became a regular newspaper with strong ties ot Spain. The Diario has become the source of most of the passenger lists to and from Havana in our database.
Please keep in mind that such newspaper lists often have typographical and transcription errors, so when you search for a particular name also search for possible variations. Also be aware that first names were commonly recorded in their Spanish version (Guillermo instead of William, Juan instead of John, etc.).
Be aware also of the customary ship routes. Ships saling from Spain, particularly Cadiz, usually stopped at the Canary Islands before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and stopped at Puerto Rico before proceeding to Cuba. Ships saling from England usually stopped at Nassau and/or San Tomas (Saint Thomas) before proceeding to Cuba.
The bulk of the newspaper transcriptions have been done with the valuable help of Mariela Fernandez and Lourdes del Pino, both active members of the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, who have generously taken much of their time to scan the microfilms of the newspapers into computer readable form at the libraries of the University of Miami and Florida International University.
The transcription from the computer files to our data base has been done primarily by your Webmaster (it's amazing how you start recognizing names of ships and of the "frequent flyers"). We have also had help from one of our readers in Spain, Ingrid Palica and from two members of the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, Conchita Gutierez and Juan Tamayo.
Thanks to the efforrts of the prolific Lydia Reyes, the names of 706 passengers who arrived in La Habana in 1842-1876, aboard 27 ships, are also included in the passenger data base.
Most of the newspaper sources are microfilms in special library collections at the University of Miami and Florida International University. Unfortunately, the microfilm collection at FIU was contaminated by mold and removed from circulation. In its stead we have been using the digitized version of the Diario de la Marina available at dloc, the Digital Library of the Caribeean. Unfortunately the quality and legibility of this source is not as good as the original microfilms we had been using.
Please note that our volunteers doing the transcription of newspaper passenger lists to the CubaGenWeb database may ocassionally make transcription errors. Also, the newspaper clerks may ocassionally have made errors when entering the names into the newspaper for publication. We recommend that, in case of any doubts, please search the original newspaper images. These are available on-line at:
A few of the newspapers form part of various dossiers in the Spain On-Line Archives (Archivos Españoles en la Red).
For the key to the numbers appearing in the first column of the search form please visit our ships list.
The date shown on the ship list and on the entry in the database is the date of publication of the newspaper containing the passenger list. Actual ship arrival was either on the same date (usually for vapores or steamships) or 1 or 2 days before the publication of the passenger list (usually for sailing vessels). We have elected to list the publication date, rather than the arrival date, to facilitate the researcher retrieving the published information.
We have been informed by Mariela Fernandez that the Prensa Historica (Historic Press) in Spain (part of the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes) has now listed the issues of the Diario de la Marina which were previously missing.
We are in process of transcribing them into our data base.
On 20 Nov 1503, only 9 years after the discovery of America, the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, created in Seville, by Royal Decree the "Casa de Contratacion" (House of Contracting). To this organization was given the exclusive right to control all movement of people and goods to and from the new territories.
Along with the selection of Seville as the home of the new organization, all ships were required to sail from and terminate their travel in the port of Seville (on the Guadalquivir river) as the only authorized point to transact shipping to and from the Indies (as the territories of America were known). Seville was home to this monopoly for more than 200 years (1503-1717). There was only one period (1529-1573) where 8 spanish ports were authorized to send ships directly ot the Indies, although still under the supervision of the Casa and still with the obligation of terminating the return voyage in Seville. The relatively shallow depth of the Guadalquivir river did not permit all the ships to sail with all their cargo all the way to Seville and, because of this reason, ships were eventually authorized to load and unload cargo in the port of Cadiz. The Casa was eventually moved to Cadiz in 1717 and the commerce laws were gradually opened until in 1790 the Casa was terminated. For a good article on the Casa de Contratacion (in Spanish) visit the web site of Julio Dominguez Arjona.
During the period when the Casa was active, all persons wishing to travel to and/or to settle in these overseas territories were required to apply for and be granted a license. Sometimes these licenses were granted for a limited period of time, perhaps a few years. All surviving correspondence and records related to the Indies, including the licenses and passenger lists, called "Libros de Asientos" (Books of Seats) are now kept in the Archivo General de Indias (AGI or General Archive of the Indies) in Seville.
The AGI has published several books which are compilations of the passenger lists in the Libro de Asientos. We are fortunate in having three of these volumes and have transcribed all the names of passengers whose destination is listed as either Cuba or Habana. Note that there very few people travelling to Cuba in those early years (only 228 out of 15,999 entries).
Please note that the actual lists do not include the name of the ship or the port of departure, as the list just indicates that a permit to travel was granted. The entries in the books sometimes have some limited additional data, such as the names of the parents, spouse, children or other accompanying persons. If you are really interestd in a particular individual, please drop us an e-mail and we will try to provide you with any additional information that appears in the entry (please be sure to mention our complete reference number that appears in the first column of the search form and note that this offer is limited only to entries with a refernce number starting with "D05", "D06" or "D07", which are the only ones in our possession.).
The following is the key to the numbers appearing in the first column of the search form:
number |
ship |
date |
from |
to |
D01-xxx | not specified | 1514-1534 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
D02-xxx | not specified | 1535-1538 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
D03-xxx | not specified | 1539-1559 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
D04-xxx | not specified | 1560-1566 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
D05-xxx | not specified | 1567-1577 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
D06-xxx | not specified | 1578-1585 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
D07-xxx | not specified | 1586-1599 | not specified (probably Seville) | Habana or Cuba |
The names in the above lists have been extracted from the following references:
Please note that the LDS Church has microfilmed the first 3 volumes of the above Catalog and also the original Libros de Asientos for the period 1509-1701. You can find a list of these microfilms by visiting our web page dedicated to Passenger Lists
After 1800, licenses (passports) for travel to the Island of Cuba were issued, first by the Council of the Indies (Consejo de las Indias) and then by the Ministry of State (Secretaria de Estado), the Office of Issuance of Grace and Justice (Despacho de Gracia y Justicia), by the Office of Overseas Government (Despacho de Gobernacion de Ultramar) and by Universal Office of the Indies (Despacho Universal de las Indias). The related files of application papers (expedientes) are kept in the Archive of the Indies (Archivo General de las Indias or AGI) in Seville. Some of the indices to these files are available at the on-line Spanish Archives: Archivos Españoles en Red (AER).
We are in process of transcribing the passenger names appearing in these indices. Note that no additional information appears in the indices, only the names and year of the application file.
The following is the key to the numbers appearing in the first column of the search form:
number | date | AGI reference code |
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E326-xxx | 1801-1803 | ES.41091.AGI/16411.327//ULTRAMAR,326 |
E327-xxx | 1804-1811 | ES.41091.AGI/16411.328//ULTRAMAR,327 |
E328-xxx | 1812-1813 |
ES.41091.AGI/16411.329//ULTRAMAR,328 |
E329-xxx | 1814-1815 | ES.41091.AGI/16411.330//ULTRAMAR,329 |
E340-xxx | 1821-1822 | ES.41091.AGI/16411.341//ULTRAMAR,340 |
E364-xxx | 1833-1835 | ES.41091.AGI/16411.365//ULTRAMAR,364 |
Additional lists of licenses can be found at the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami web site.
To increase the population of whites on the Island, the Ministry of Ultramar issued a Royal Decree on 23 September 1889 and a Royal Order on 12 October 1898 (note 1) authorizing the transportation, free of charge, of 250 families of agricultural colonists from Spain to the Island of Cuba. Many families from all regions of Spain took advantage of this offer. Lists of the applications for emigration, as well as receipts for their food and lodging and telegrams to Cuban civil government officials advising them of the impending arrival of colonists, were generated by Spain civil government offices and can be found in the Spain Archives on the Web (Archivos Espanoles en la Red) or AER. Lydia Reyes has located these documents for us and we are in process of transcribing these lists into our passenger data base for your convenience.
In most cases, the ages of the indivuduals are given in the civil government lists and have been transcribed in the "remarks" column (it is remarkable how many small children accompanied this venture).
The following is the key to the numbers appearing in the first column of the search form:
number | AER location |
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F174-14-bb-xxZ | Ultramar,174,exp.14 Block bb |
F174-15-bb-xxZ | Ultramar,174,exp.15 Block bb |
F174-16-bb-xxZ | Ultramar,174,exp.16 Block bb |
F174-17-bb-xxZ | Ultramar,174,exp.17 Block bb |
F174-18-bb-xxZ | Ultramar,174,exp.18 Block bb |
The "xx" indicates the sequence of the family in the original document. The last letter "Z" indicates the members of a given family (where A= head of family, B= spouse, C-xxx = accompanying children or other adults). Please note that the spouse's surname is generally not the same as the head of household, so she may be listed in another data base file. This also may apply to any accompanying adults.
NOTES:
We want to express our gratitude to all the volunteers who transcribed newspaper lists or supplied us with transcriptions from other sources. Our special thanks to:
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