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Asian Dining Room, Responsibility for enforcement of US Chinese Exclusion law transferred to the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1903, and continued until repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. The old Chinese Service transferred into INS along with it's records, which INS maintained as a separate set until 1908. Those files on Chinese matters kept separate from general immigration files at Washington, D.C., until 1908 are referred to as Segregated Chinese Files, and are today found at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. INS continued to file records of Chinese in separate file series at major ports of entry and district offices, and those files are today found at Regional Archives across the country. Segregated Chinese Files in Washington, DC Record Group 85, National Archives (Archives I), Washington, DC Click on any item to read more about those records.
Miscellaneous Name Index, ca 1893-1932, RG 85 - Entry 4 - 13 boxes of index cards Name index to persons (immigrants, INS employees, and others) within general subject categories. Refers to old Chinese Files (i.e., Entry 132) as well as general INS subject correspondence files after 1908 (Entry 9+). Some parts missing. Subject Index, ca. 1893-1932 (aka the "Reserve Index"), RG 85 - Entry 5 - 11 boxes of index cards Alphabetical subject index (partial) to entries 7 and 9, and 132. Guide cards denote the major subjects: aliens; appeals; applications; appointments; arrests; US Attorney General, 1911-1924; attorney; bonds; cattlemen; Chinese; circulars; disbursing clerks; Division of Naturalization; embezzlers; Secretary of Labor; Secret Service; Secretary of State, 1905-34; and Secretary of the Treasury. There are additional subjects not denoted by guide cards. BOX 1 Admission of Aliens -- Automobiles, Spokane, WA Index to General Files, 1898-1908, RG 85 - Entry 131 - 1 box / 1 ft. This limited index consists of one box of 3x5 inch index cards, arranged numerically, and is actually a cross-index. It relates to files taken from the old Chinese Files and given new general subject correspondence file numbers in or after 1908. The numerical index is by the old Chinese File number. The index card may give additional information, such as the alien's name, but will definitely give the new file number. It is NOT an index to the old Chinese Files (entry 132). For indices to Entry 132, see Entries 4, 5, and T-458. Subject Index to Subject Correspondence [and case files] of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1903-1956, RG 85 - Entry 6 - MICROFILM T-458 - 31 reels Indispensable to any research on an INS, immigration, or naturalization topic. The index is alphabetical by subject. Cards for each subject are arranged chronologically but may be divided into cards referring to different series of records. The index serves as a reference to a variety of INS record systems, many in NARA custody, including the 56,000 Series (Entry 9 and the much larger undescribed accessions), Bureau of Naturalization Series (Entry 26), and Segregated Chinese Files (Entry 132). The index also contains occasional references to files still in INS custody, among them certain A-Files, C-Files, Registry Files, Visa Files, T V & E Files (destroyed), Petition Files, Declaration Files (destroyed), and CO (post-1956) Subject Files. Locations: NARA Washington, DC, Room 400; NARA New York City; NARA San Bruno; [NARA Seattle?]. T-458 available for purchase as a publication from NARA. |
Last Modified 11/13/2001
