Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

SS San Jose

I, W.J. Russell, Master of the S.S. San Jose 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 Panama 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) W.J. Russell
Sworn to this 30* day of Jan 1897 before me, (signature) JJ Tobin, Deputy Collector of Customs

Separate List or Manifest of all the Chinese Passengers taken on board the S.S. San Jose whereof W.J. Russell is Master, from Panama, burthen 1583.28* 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  Chin   Lo   Lah 35    Merchant Jamaica 5'8" Dark Dark Mole on right ?
2* Edward Chin ?oy 1y10m his boy  Jamaica 2'   Dark Dark 
3* Chu    Len      48    Merchant Jamaica 5'2" Dark Dark 
4* Chun   Que      44    Merchant Jamaica ?    Dark Dark 


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 National
 Archives file system on Chinese persons.  These numbers are included in the identification 
 of the film and reel numbers below.

The departure port is listed as simply "Panama."  Research indicates this refers to Panama
 City.

Beside the date in the Sworn Statement 29th is written.  This is also the date on the cover
 sheet.

The entry for the burthen is illegible for this arrival of this ship.  This same ship
 arrived Dec 1, 1896 and the burthen is recorded as transcribed above.

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) 1897 by  Insp's
 (blank for a name). 
 
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 continue
   travel by some other means to their destinations.
  Departed Per Steamer ______ (name of ship) _________ (date)

The following columns had no entries:
 No of Certificate
 If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts

According to the National Archives branch in San Bruno, California it is possible that
 they have some information on any Chinese passenger who arrived in San Francisco after
 1886.

2-4 The lower right corner of the manifest is missing so only passenger one has Physical
     Marks recorded.
2   Third name could be Moy.