Historic records of ship passengers coming to and from Cuba (over 300,000 records)
This database holds over 300,000 records of ship passengers traveling to and from Cuba. The earliest records date to the 16th century, though most are from the 19th century. It was originally hosted on CubaGenWeb, the oldest continuously running Cuban genealogy website, until technical problems took it offline.
Read the about the source section below before searching.
Port lists:
For a fuller discussion of the sources, see CubaGenWeb's portal. Most of the information here is covered in more detail here and here.
Search tips:
- If a search returns nothing, try leaving the second surname blank, since many sources omit it. "Juan Valdivia" may work better than "Juan Valdivia Fernandez."
- To find passengers who traveled together, use the Ship Number field. If Juan Fernandez was on ship A01, searching "A01" shows everyone on that ship, which can reveal relatives. The ship number is an internal ID used to group passengers in this database; it does not match any number used on a real ship.
- The date shown (YYYY-MM-DD) is when the trip was published in the source, usually a newspaper. The ship often arrived a few days earlier.
- Put a term in quotes for an exact match. "Juan" returns only "Juan," while Juan also returns Juana or Juan Manuel.
- You can leave any field blank, including ship number and year.
- For surnames with prefixes like "de la," enter just the main part. "Torres" returns "De La Torres."
- To find trips in a given year, enter the year, such as 1888 or 1890.
- The database is not a complete list of everyone who arrived at or left Cuban ports.
Some ports went by different names then than now. From CubaGenWeb:
| Old port name |
Current port name |
| Cuba |
Santiago de Cuba |
| Puerto Rico |
San Juan |
| Mobila |
Mobile |
| Cayo Hueso |
Key West |
| Aspinwall |
Colon (Panama) |
Abbreviations found in the data, as summarized by CubaGenWeb:
| Da. |
Doña |
| Dr. |
Doctor |
| Excmo. |
Excelentísimo |
| Illmo. |
Ilustrísimo |
| Lcdo. |
Licenciado |
| Mad. |
Madame (Señora) |
| Miss. |
Miss. (Señorita) |
| Mme. |
Madame (Señora). |
| Mr. |
Mister (Señor) |
| Mrs. |
Mistress (Señora) |
| Pbro. |
Presbítero |
| Sr. |
Señor |
| Sra. |
Señora |
| Srta. |
Señorita |
| Sor |
Hermana religiosa |
| Ch. |
Charles |
| de D. |
de Diós |
| de J. |
de Jesús |
| de la C. |
de la Crúz (masculine or femenine), de la Caridad (femenine), de la Concepción (femenine). |
| de la M. |
? (masculine) |
| de la P. |
? (masculine) |
| de la R. |
? (masculine) |
| Ma. |
María |
| F. de P. |
Francisco de Paula |
| Geo. |
George |
| Ed. |
Eduardo / Edward |
Sources
Each record lists a source.
| Source |
Information |
| Archivos Españoles en la Red (PARES) |
PARES |
| El Bien Publico |
Newspaper published in Santiago de Cuba. |
| Catálogo de Pasajeros a Indias |
Published in Seville & Madrid |
| Diario de la Marina |
Newspaper published in La Habana |
| Gaceta de la Habana |
Newspaper published in La Habana |
| Jorge Piñon |
Transcribed from Municipal Archives in Gijon (unpublished) |
| Miriam Rivera & David Chudleigh |
Unpublished |
| Ship Manifest (from destination port) |
Ancestry.com |
| La Union Constitucional |
Newspaper published in La Habana |
| La Voz de Cuba |
Newspaper published in La Habana |
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to Ed Elizondo, administrator of CubaGenWeb, for providing the database to Cuba Research Project so it could be made public again. The records were compiled by Jorge Piñon, Ingrid Palica, Mariela Fernandez, Lourdes del Pino, Conchita Gutierrez, Juan Tamayo, and Lydia Reyes. Aileen Vega, host of the Cuban Family Roots Podcast, helped bring it back.
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