Philadelphia Migrant Landing Reports 1798-1801 Dataset
Version 1.0 – Last Updated August 1, 2019
John McNelis O’Keefe
Ohio University-Chillicothe
© Copyright 2019 John McNelis O’Keefe

Overview

This dataset contains the compulsory registrations of noncitizens (“aliens”) mandated by the Naturalization Act of 1798, part of the package of laws passed that comprised the Alien and Sedition Acts. The documents included are a small group of registrations from the federal court district based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, identified in the National Archives as “Landing Reports of Aliens.” In addition, the database includes naturalization data, drawn from two books of collected naturalization data: P. William Filby’s Philadelphia Naturalization Records, and Jefferson Moaks’s The Minor Courts of Philadelphia. This dataset is part of a larger database I have created for my research, studying migration and citizenship in the early American republic. I hope this dataset can serve as a useful resource for other scholars. I am interested in feedback, and can be emailed at johnok at gmail dot com.

List of Materials

Including this documentation file, the following files are available:

File Name(s)	Description	
Philadelphia Migrant Landing Reports 1798-1801 Dataset Documentation
 (i.e., this document)	Word file, describing scope, content, and other relevant information	
Landing Reports Database Visualization	PDF showing image of database relationships (also reproduced in Word documentation document, but not RTF version)	
Tables and Fields Export Combined 	PDF List and Description of Fields	
Philadelphia French Migrants Landing Reports Registering in Federal Court 1798-1801	Excel file containing the fields, tables, and data (one single file)	
Landing Reports Dataset [Table Name] (multiple files, following above format)	Tab-Delimited Data Files, one for each table in the database export	
Scanned Landing Reports 1798-1807	PDF of scans (scanned by National Archives)	

Structure of Data

This dataset is an export from a relational database, originally created through Filemaker Pro. Relational databases, as the name implies, are useful for providing information in a searchable format that shows relationships between different kinds of information contained in their records. In the case of the this database, it means establishing relationships between historical documents and the people who appear in them, and then using that information to gain a greater understanding of migration, naturalization, and citizenship. What sorts of people migrated? Were some of them more likely to naturalize than others? How did they respond to early attempts at mass government surveillance? Why or why not? The information contained in this database can help answer these sorts of questions.

Visualization of the Database
(Please see PDF file, Landing Reports Database Visualization for Reference)

The database connects historical people to information about them from documentary sources, and so the structure of the database reflects those relationships. People held various occupations, traveled to various places, married and sometimes remarried, lived in bondage under different masters, resided in different places at different times, engaged in legal actions, and participated and/or were witnesses to important historical events. Since one person can do or experience many of these things in their lifetime, these are one-to-many or many-to-many relationships. Filemaker Pro allows us to visualize these relationships, showing the general structure of the database.

In the image, you can see those relationships reflected: the historical people table, contains a unique identifier field, Person ID. That field corresponds to fields in related tables, so person 122 is connected through related fields (often also called Person ID, but sometimes passenger ID or spouse ID to make the specific relationship clearer.) 

For many-to-many relationships, a join table connects a person from the historical people table to another table. So a person is connected to the marriages people join table, along with their spouse, and the marriages people join table connects both spouses to a specific marriage. 

Export Format

Since Filemaker Pro is not widely used, I have provided exported tables in Microsoft Excel. 

Descriptions of Tables and Fields

As described above, the database contains tables, which either relate to documents, such as the Landing Report Form, or to people, events, employments, etc., or to join tables that link different categories of tables to each other. 

Each table has an overview description here in the documentation, and corresponds to a sheet in the Excel file. Each field in the table corresponds to a column in Excel. 

General Formatting Information 

The tables are organized as they appear listed in the database, and their description information follows the Filemaker table export format. The table name appears at the top, and immediately below are three columns: Field Name, Field Type (with descriptions in italics), and Formula/Entry Options. Further information about fields can be found in the Notes on Fields section.

Table Descriptions

Tables are listed below, with the primary tables (Historical People, Landing Report Form, Historical Documents, and HistDocLineItems) appearing first, followed by the remaining tables in alphabetical order. Tables discontinued or not exported appear at the very end of the tables list.

Historical People

This table contains information about people appearing in the historical record. Their names, including alternate names, their birth and death dates, or period when they were historically active if birth and death dates are unavailable, links to parents if they appear in the database, information on gender, race, religion, nationality, and metropolitan/colonial status. There are also linked fields relating to legal actions such as naturalization, residences, travel and refugee status, and employment.

In cases where people are not given a full name by which to identify them, they have been given names based on relevant details provided from the documentation in which they appear (e.g. “Anonymous Second Child of Simon Daunide.”) As is often the case, people of marginalized status are denied fuller representation in historical sources, including these. Where names appear, people in bondage have been given those names, but if anonymous, their status in bondage is recorded as part of their name. Married women follow a similar convention: if no other name information about a woman appears in the documentation other than her husband’s name, she may have a name recorded as “Mrs. Husbandname.” There is also a husbandname field with additional description of its use conventions. I hope that scholars will be able to use this database to uncover more about the lives of these people.

In general, information appearing in primary sources is reproduced in the database, but not attempt has been made to confirm beyond the available documents. This means that people choosing to present themselves differently from the statuses that others would ascribe them still appear. For instance, people claiming to be married are recorded as such, but it is possible that some people appearing took the opportunity to claim formally married status when they were not in their place of origin.

Additionally, in certain cases people appear in documents with similar or identical names: these people are sometimes listed as possible duplicates. 

Landing Report Form

This table reproduces the information contained the aforementioned Landing Reports. This includes landing report set and number, the demographic and identifying data of the main person (usually the head of household) registering, additional household members, their dates and means of travel to the U.S., their reasons for coming and/or remaining the U.S., whether the document also served as naturalization or declaration of intent to naturalize, their current foreign allegiance. There are also additional metadata fields for date of the document, clerk’s signature, and a preamble text field. Further descriptions of fields in this table can be see in the fields descriptions, as is the case for all tables.

Bondages

This table is for records of enslavement, indenture, and apprenticeship.  In addition to the type of bondage, it also includes information about how the bondage began, and its start and end dates or extant dates. For indentures, contract information, such as indications of parental consent, stipulated freedom dues and other contract stipulations, and the consideration (value of purchase of time) all have fields as well.

Since many of these records were created in Pennyslvania, it is important to note that the law passed in 1780 was a limited, gradual emancipation law.  While people brought in slavery from St. Domingue and other places often sought to challenge their enslavement, their enslavements could legally persist if they were born prior to 1780, were registered with the state government, and were not taken out of the state. Slaveowners undertook various means to evade or subvert the law, and presented illegitimate enslavements as fully legal. Some people recorded as enslaved may have been freer than indicated on the records used for this database. For a discussion of the law, see Gary B. Nash and Jean R. Soderlund, Freedom By Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.)

Bondages People Join Table

This table links historical people to bondages. It also indicates their role as bondee or master. Bondees can include indentee, prisoner of war, enslaved person, and probable enslaved person.

Employments

This table contains information about peoples’ periods of employment. In additional to data about the start and end dates, it also includes information about the occupation (carpenter, lawyer, etc.), its occupational category and rank, and how the employment ended. 

Since self-employment in the eighteenth century was quite common, documents which imply but do not unambiguously state a person as self-employed are recorded as self-employed in the database.

Occupational rank is defined as follows: Occupational classes were divided into six categories—low-prestige labor, including enlisted soldiers and sailors (1), household service (2), artisans (3), high artisans (4)—which includes watchmakers, jewelers, goldsmiths, and other metalworkers, middling occupations (5)—including clerks, military officers of lower rank, hairdressers, shopkeepers, boarding house keepers, clergy, and plantation managers, and elites (6), which includes sugar refiners, plantation owners, merchants, lawyers, doctors, brokers, national-level elected officials, governors, notaries public, diplomats, naval officers at or above the rank of captain, and army officers at or above the rank of colonel, royal courtiers, and self-described gentlemen. Other occupations were unranked, and excluded from the query: military personnel of unknown rank, French teachers, students, farmers, musicians, spies, and apprentices. Musicians and French teachers are occupations to which former elites had often attempted to make a living out of in their newfound poverty. At the initial time of documentation (June 2019), only people appearing in the Landing Reports are given occupational ranks.

Employments People Join Table

This table links people and employers to a particular period of employment of an employee. People are linked and identified as employees or employers. Additionally, if someone was employed by an organization such as a government entity, or an institution such as a school or corporation, that organization is also linked via this join table.

Geographic table

This table contains information about geographic entities. In addition to the name, type of geographic entity (e.g. county, river, etc.) the table also contains information about parent-child relationships (e.g. Luzerne County is in Pennsylvania.) parents can be political (French Guiana is part of France) or geographic (French Guiana is part of South America.) If the geographic entity has a corresponding record in the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names, an external link to its record there is included. 

French departments are considered state-level entities for the purposes of this database.

Historical events

This table contains information about historical events. In addition to the name of the event and its dates, historical events can also be recorded as being part of a larger historical event—the British intervention in the Haitian Revolution, which lasted from 1793 to 1798, is recorded as being part of the Haitian Revolution. 

Historical Events People Join Table (name abbreviated in Excel sheet)

This table links people to historical events, and also contains information about their role in the event, as a participant, witness, or other role.

Journeys

This table contains information about a particular journey undertaken by a particular person. In addition to the start and end dates, the journey also contains information about the means of transport (and name of ship, if extant), and the places where the journey started. The table contains some additional calculation fields as well, which are described in the individual fields description.

Landing Report Person Appearances Join Table (name abbreviated in Excel sheet)

This table links people to their appearances in the landing reports. It also indicates whether they signed the landing report, and the nature of their appearance in the document: whether they were the primary person in the document, another household member, or otherwise mentioned or appear in it. 

Legal Actions

This table contains links and information relating to a person’s participation in legal actions. It contains information about the type of legal action, court where it was initiated, and if it is a possible naturalization or step towards naturalization such as a declaration of intent to naturalize.

Legal actions are drawn from the Landing Reports, but also aforementioned published court records of naturalizations: P. William Filby’s Philadelphia Naturalization Records, and Jefferson Moaks’s The Minor Courts of Philadelphia. As previously mentioned, this naturalization data is included only for a subset of the migrants appearing in the larger database. The fields also reproduce the court abbreviations, expanded below:

CC – U.S. Circuit Court
CP – Court of Common Pleas
DC – U.S. District Court
QS – Quarter Sessions
SC – Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 

In addition, many legal actions were recorded as the court where the landing report was made. Other courts also appear without abbreviations, such as the Mayor’s Court. 

Marriages

This table contains information relating to people’s marriages. In addition start and end date information, it also contains information about how the marriage ended, if extant. 

Organizations

This table contains information about organizations. Following the Anglo-American cataloguing rules, buildings, ships and other similar vehicles are included in the concept of organizations for the purposes of this database. If an organization is headquartered or a building is located in a particular place, that location is also included. 

People Marriages Join Table

This table contains links connecting people to particular marriages as spouses.

Residences

This table contains information about people’s residences in a geographic location or at an address. In addition to start and end date information, it contains additional information such as the residence being an uncertain or possible residence, and some calculation fields which are described individually in the fields description section.

Residences People Join Table

This table contains links between people and residences, and those are its only fields.

Notes on Fields

General

Descriptions of fields appear in a separate PDF file (Tables Fields Export Combined.) In this export, field information appears in three columns. Field Name, Field Type (with descriptions in italics), and Formula/Entry Options. 

Field Name is self-explanatory: it is what the field is called. 

Field type refers to what kind of data is valid for the field. Text fields contain text, and number fields contain numbers. Calculations are the equivalent of Excel formulas, and the data for a particular calculation field is determined using data from other fields referred to in the calculation. Calculation(number) produces data from a mathematical formula using other fields’ data, while Calculation(text) means that the resulting data is in text format, and is usually a concatenation or truncation of data from other fields. 

The Field type column also contains a description, which appears in italics below the field type information. The description explains the purpose of the field, and may also contain data entry conventions for that field. For example, in the Historical people table, the husbandnames field contains names for a woman when her first or given name(s) are absent—a common nineteenth-century convention (“Mrs. John Smith.”) The description also notes that multiple husbandnames should be separated by semicolons.

Formula/Entry option contains formula information for calculation fields, and also other metadata about the field. FilemakerPro has more extensive detail on its own standards for entry options, but these are usually limits on kinds of information that can be entered (month fields cannot have a number higher than 12 in them)

Dates

Many tables contain start and end date fields. These follow a standard set of conventions within the database. The historical events table is a good example. Each historical event has fields for its start and end: separate fields for year, month, and day. However, sometimes the exact date is not specific (or not known or extant.) Each of the date fields also has a companion “circa” field (e.g. “start year circa”), which, if it contains the text “ca.” indicates that the exact year, month, or day is uncertain. For historical people, birth and death serve as equivalents of start and end, but for people who appear in the historical record without that information, fields with “flourished” serve to record the historically active period instead. For instance, if someone appears in a historical document (often a household member from a landing report) without birth or age information, they would receive a flourish start and end date of the document. If that document contained information about them beyond the date of the document, then the start and end dates reflect the date range that the person appears in the historical record. For example, Charles Laurent listed his age in his landing report, but not a specific birth date. He is given a year of birth of 1742, and the circa field contains the abbreviation “ca.” to indicate that it is an estimate. His children also appear in his landing reports, but since they lack exact age information, they are given flourish dates, e.g., “Anonymous Second Child of Charles Laurent, fl.1795-1798.”

For calculation purposes, some dates may appear as a number in YYYYMMDD format (e.g. 17930625 for June 25, 1793.)

Notes Fields

Many tables contain a notes field. If there is some aspect of the information or document relevant to the table, but can’t be described or indicated in the other table fields, that information is entered in the notes field.

Data Entry Conventions

Fields generally only contain information if it is extant in the documents. Documents might indicate a marriage, but not provide a start or end date to that marriage, or indicate if that marriage ended in the death of spouse or divorce. 

Contact Information

Questions, comments, and suggestions can be sent to John O’Keefe, johnok at gmail dot com.