Key West 1885 Arrivals

Dear Ms. Carter,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Ports in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, 1890 - 1924 in the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Record Group 85) that was microfilmed as T517.   The “Index” is the passenger record in this case. The microfilm is arranged alphabetically by surname. Therefore, when viewing the microfilm, please search for the full name(s) and any known variant spellings for your ancestors that arrived in 1891. You may view T517 at the National Archives at Washington, DC; the National Archives at Denver; the National Archives at Atlanta; and the National Archives at Seattle.

Also, the records are now available in digital form and can be viewed online via Ancestry. There may be a fee for this service. Or you may view these records online at one NARA's facilities for free via ALIC. For the nearest NARA location, please consult our web page at https://www.archives.gov/locations/. Also, some of the images from Ancestry are available for free on Family Search at https://www.familysearch.org/en/.

In addition, we were unable to locate passenger lists for Key West during 1885. Unfortunately, not all passenger list records survived for every ship that arrived at a U.S. port. 

We hope this information is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!