Daily AncestorRace or people
Race or people on a passenger list recorded the immigrant's ethnic group, which could differ from the nationality column showing citizenship.
The column appears on the list forms used from March 1903 to 1924, next to nationality. From 1907 the nationality column is defined as the country of which the alien was a citizen or subject, so a person from a large empire could be a citizen of one country and listed here under a different people. Card manifests at the Mexican border also recorded race alongside nationality.
Read the two columns together. The race or people entry can point to a region and a language that the country name hides, which helps when searching records in Europe.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Race or people." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/race-or-people. Last checked 2026-10-12.