Historic Immigration Files Available For Viewing In San Bruno
SAN BRUNO (CBS / AP) -- The federal government has released thousands of historic West Coast immigration records to the public, shining a light on Pacific migration patterns.
Troves of photographs, personal correspondence, vital records, interview transcripts and visa applications were made available Tuesday at the San Bruno-based National Archives at San Francisco.
Most belonged to immigrants from China, Japan and the Philippines, who were processed in Honolulu, Guam and San Francisco and were born in 1910 or before.
The documents were transferred from U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. They come from 40,000 immigrant case files known as "Alien Files" or "A-Files."
The records are among millions of case files that eventually will be opened to the public. The files later will be transferred to the National Archives and saved in perpetuity.
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