What port or border crossing would immigrants to Minnesota likely have used?

Question

I have some Austrian/Ukrainian ancestors that first settled in Minnesota for a brief time after immigrating to the United States around 1900. What was likely their point of entry into the US? Family lore says they came through Canada. Whether that's true or not, I would like to know what port or border crossing.

Answer 1

I search Google, asked my question, then search Google a second time and found this in the FamilySearch Wiki:

Minnesota has no ports of entry. Most immigrants to Minnesota arrived at a major eastern port such as New York (New York), Boston (Massachusetts), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), or Quebec (Canada). Some Minnesota immigrants prior to 1855 entered through the port of New Orleans.

Answer 2

The Library of Congress has a guide for Immigrant Arrivals: A Guide To Published Sources. On the bottom of the page General Works on Immigration see this entry:

University of Minnesota. Immigration History Research Center. The Immigration History Research Center: A Guide to Collections. Compiled and edited by Suzanna Moody and Joel Wurl; foreword by Rudolph J. Vecoli. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. xxiii, 446 pp., ill., bibliographies. LC call number: Z1361 .E4U58 1991 LH&G; MRR Alc LC control number: 91016262

There are links online to the Table of Contents, the Index, and the LOC Catalog Record.

If you wanted to trace the footsteps of your family through Minnesota, the University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center might be a good place to start.

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You could also look at travelers' guidebooks -- for an example see: Crossley's The railway and steamboat routes in British North America (1873) which is in the Ancestry card catalog, and is viewable via the Internet Archive. Crossley's guide has a table of destination cities with cross-references to the most convenient routes a passenger could take to get there.