The Chinese Exclusion Act files.

The files are located on the National Archives at Seattle. They covered the Chinese who came into the ports of Seattle, Port Townsend, Sumas, WA; and Portland, OR. The act was in effect from 1882 to 1943 and there are over 50,000 files at the Seattle branch of the National Archives.

The files contain a variety of genealogical information on the subject of the file and their family, documents and most include photos. Sometimes there are affidavits by Caucasians in the files.

I highlight a different file every week. The final destination of the Chinese coming into the PNW ports may have been anywhere in the U.S. but most of the files on the blog are for people who lived in Washington or the PNW.

The blog is located at www.ChineseExclusionFiles.com.

Trish Hackett Nicola
www.ChineseExclusionFiles.com