Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

SS St Paul

I, John Von Helms, Master of the Steamship St Paul do solemnly, sincerely, and truly swear that the following List or Manifest, subscribed by me, and now delivered by me to the Collector of the Customs of the Collection District of San Francisco, is a full and perfect list of all Chinese passengers taken on board the said vessel at Guaymas & way ports from which port said vessel has now arrived, or that have been taken on board the said vessel at any foreign port or place, and of all such passengers now on board said vessel, and that on said List is truly designated the names and other particulars, as shown by their respective certificates.So help me God.
(signature) John Von Helms
Sworn to this 15th day of Jan 1895, before me, (signature) NS Farley, Deputy Collector of Customs

Separate List or Manifest of all the Chinese Passengers taken on board the St Paul whereof John Von Helms is Master, ________, burthen _______ tons

Columns represent: Number, No of Certificate*, Name, Age, Occupation, Last Place of Residence, Height, Complexion, Color of Eyes, Physical Marks or Peculiarities and Facts of Identification, If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts*.

1*  ?u Chin Wo   50   Merchant   Magdalena Mex   5'4"   Dark   Black   Scar ? ? chin
    Landed "I.T." Transit List 4027, Departed per Steamer ? Hong Kong


Transcriber's Notes:

* An asterisk indicates an error on the part of the original recorder, not the transcriber,
  or calls attention to additional information in the transcriber notes.

The pages on this film are not numbered so finding a particular ship can be difficult.  
 However, there is a system of numbering the manifests that is a part of the filing system
 for chinese persons at the natiional Archives.  These numbers are included in the 
 identification of the film and reel numbers below.

For passengers bound for San Francisco, passengers' names and ages are followed by a stamp 
 that varies depending on the disposition of the passenger and which is stamped over whatever 
 information has been entered in the columns. 
Passengers allowed to land have the following stamp:
 Landed Collectors order (blank with a month and day date written in) 1895 by  Insp's (blank 
 for a name, in this case Grant). 
 
Passengers not allowed to land have one of two different stamps:
 Landing Refused Habeas Corpus U.S.D.C. Case followed by a number.  These passengers were probably 
  allowed to land, but not to freely enter the country.
 Landing Refused Departed Per Steamer ______ (name of ship) _________ (date).

For passengers bound for a further destination there are two possible dispositions:
  Landed "I.T." Transit List followed by a number  These passengers expected to travel over
   land (by rail) to their destinations
  Departed Per Steamer ______ (name of ship) _________ (date)

The following columns had no entries and are not included in the table:
 No of Certificate 
 If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts

Occupation is universally recorded as Merchant or Grocer because following the Chinese 
 Exclusion Act of May 6, 1882 admission was denied to all Chinese except laborers already 
 in the US and "students, teachers, merchants or those proceeding to the United States from 
 curiosity."

1  First name could be Su or Lu.  He is described as "in transit for China."