Immigration to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries reflects a complex blend of motivations. European royals, political, and business leaders sought wealth, power, and resources. Missionaries wanted to convert Native Americans to Christianity, while others looked to escape religious persecution. Violent conflicts, high land rents, and criminal punishments also caused—or forced—people to sail to the colonies. And there’s the tragic history of enslavement, in which Africans were forcibly brought to North America as a source of labor. All new arrivals entered a land long inhabited by Indigenous nations.

By the end of the 17th and 18th centuries, the newly forged United States embodied an incredibly mixed population—one that would become even more so as immigrants from other lands arrived in the coming centuries.

If you’re looking for ancestors who arrived in the Colonial period, before 1800, awareness of who, when, and why people sailed to North America may help you understand more about your family’s history. It can also allow you to focus more on records or accounts that are likely to align with your family’s arrival story.

Early North American Colonies

Between the 1500s and the start of the American Revolution, explorers primarily from England, Spain, the Netherlands, and France came to the North American continent. Colonists followed soon afterwards. Each of these nations was eager to establish a foothold in North America by "planting" settlers and staking claims for valuable land and resources.

• New France’s first permanent settlement, Quebec, was in place by 1608. France claimed much of what is now Canada, and by the 1720s, it also controlled large parts of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, including the present-day states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. French colonies extended along the Mississippi River—lands now part of the states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
• New Netherlands was formed by 1624. It encompassed what is now New York and most of Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey. By 1664, the Dutch Republic became the British colony of New York.
• New Sweden, established in 1638, was the smallest and shortest-lived North American colony. Only a few hundred settlers lived in territory that spanned parts of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. This colony lasted less than 20 years before it was taken over by the Dutch.
• British colonies began to form in the 1600s with their first permanent settlement in Jamestown (Virginia). In 1620, the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth Bay (Massachusetts). By 1730, the last of the 13 British colonies, Georgia, was established, giving them a strong presence up and down the East Coast.
• New Spain’s colonial endeavors included North America's Southwest, the current state of Florida, and the Deep South. In fact, the oldest permanent European settlement in the U.S.—established in what is now St. Augustine, Florida—dates to 1565. Catholic missions were founded in present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida.

Colonist Arrivals on Native American Lands

During the colonial period, it was essential to European survival in North America to enter into economic and diplomatic relationships with Native nations. Yet the creation of European settlements often meant forcibly removing Indigenous people through violent conflicts or negotiating "legal" cessions of land. Colonizers like William Penn, for example, signed treaties and purchase agreements with Native Americans—like the Lenape tribe—emphasizing the importance of peaceful cohabitation.

But the relationships frequently turned volatile. Agreements and treaties were ignored or "reinterpreted" by colonizers, which further disrupted existing Indigenous methods of land stewardship. Virginia’s Anglo-Powhatan Wars resulted in the loss of Native lands to make way for more tobacco fields. King Philip's War saw colonists battle against the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuck, and Pocumtuck tribes. And the Pequot War with the Puritans, over trade and territory, almost wiped out the entire Pequot tribe.

How Did Immigrants Get to North America?

Early immigrants’ ocean voyages in the 17th and 18th centuries could be long and arduous. Ships, fashioned from wood and canvas, were relatively small. The Mayflower weighed only 180 tons and was 90 feet long; the Ark, which brought colonists to Maryland, weighed 400 tons and was 132 feet long. By comparison, the exceptionally large Titanic weighed more than 46,000 tons and was 882 feet long.

Voyages from Europe typically lasted between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on weather conditions. Immigrants faced threats from storms, shipwrecks, and even pirate attacks—as well as poor onboard conditions from overcrowding, famine, and disease—before finally making it to North America. It’s estimated that at least 1 in 10 travelers from Europe died before reaching America.

Major Points of Entry for American Colonists

Early immigrants who intended to live in areas now known as the United States typically landed at one of these popular 17th- and 18th-century ports:

• Baltimore, Maryland
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Charleston, South Carolina
• New Amsterdam (or New York City), New York
• Newport, Rhode Island
• Jamestown, Virginia
• St. Augustine, Florida

Their planned arrival point largely aligned with their goal of settling in British, Dutch, or Spanish colonies, but it also could be connected to why they immigrated in the first place. For example, Puritan shipbuilders might land in Boston, prospective Presbyterian tobacco or indigo farmers likely docked in southern ports, while those interested in the fur trade probably chose New Amsterdam.

Tip: Determine your ancestors’ earliest known location—and probable arrival port—by working backwards through census, church, or tax records, for example. Extant passenger lists for 17th- and 18th-century arrivals are sparse; they weren’t required until 1820.

Who Immigrated to North America in the 17th Century?

The first immigrants came mainly from northern European countries. They arrived to establish a new life in North America—the British colonies, New France, New Netherlands, New Sweden, or New Spain. In the 18th century, European migration to North America continued and increased, as colonies became more established.

• English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and Scots-Irish people from Ulster left their homelands for myriad reasons. Religious refuge was sought by Quakers, Puritans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Catholics, for example. And as the British agricultural system shifted in favor of larger landholders—through the 18th-century Enclosure Movement—smaller farmers were forced off their lands. This prompted many to journey across the Atlantic. Wealthier British colonists aimed to establish profitable tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations, sustained by enslaved people.
• French immigrants—the earliest ones—primarily consisted of fur traders and Jesuit missionaries. Some French colonists, like Protestant Huguenots, chose to settle in British colonies because they found it more welcoming than Catholic New France.
• Dutch nationals, French-speaking Walloons (from present-day Belgium), Sephardic Jews from Brazil, and Germans were part of the mix who came to the Dutch colonies via the Dutch West India Company. Many of these early settlers looked to capitalize on the abundant fur trade, especially beaver pelts.
• Swedish and Finnish colonists who settled in New Sweden also sought to benefit from North America’s fur trade, like those in New France and New Netherlands. In addition, they looked to fill the burgeoning demand for tobacco.
• Spanish explorers initially arrived in search of gold. Spanish missionaries, however, looked to convert Indigenous peoples to Catholicism and European ways of living. Over time, Spanish settlers claimed land for farming and livestock near the missions and military forts—presidios—which then became villages and cities. They also exploited Indigenous labor in mines, plantations, and factories.
• German and Austrian immigrants, like the British settlers, sought economic opportunities and religious freedom. Many Lutherans expelled from Austria in the 1730s ended up immigrating to British colonies, for example. Others looked to escape conflict-heavy regions like the Palatinate. Their initial settlements took place primarily in New York and Pennsylvania.
• Russian fur traders and missionaries established settlements and trading posts along the Pacific Coast in the 1780s—from Alaska down to the northern part of California. But the Russian czar wasn’t interested in having a long-term North American colony, so few immigrants journeyed overseas. The territory was sold to the U.S. in the mid-1800s.

Enslaved African People Brought to North America

In the 17th and 18th centuries, more than 380,000 enslaved Africans were torn from their homeland and forced to embark on the journey to North America. Those who survived the horrific "slave ships" were then forced to work under dismal conditions upon arrival.

Few historical records exist from the 17th and 18th centuries that document the arrival of enslaved individuals. However, some slave manifests from the early years do note details about the shipment of "property." These records typically record the enslaved person’s first name, sex, age, height, port of departure, and port of arrival, as well as the name of the so-called owner. Here are a few examples:

• Southeast Coastwise Inward and Outward Slave Manifests (from 1790)
• Louisiana, Records of Enslaved People (from 1719)

Indentured Servants Arrive in the Colonies

Estimates suggest one-third to half of the European population in colonial North America came as apprentices, indentured servants, or convicts. Apprentices, usually young people who wanted to learn a trade, were bound to a master for a period of time. Indentured servitude offered employment prospects to those who suffered from poverty at home. North American colonists, on the other hand, needed a source of cheap labor.

Those who voluntarily left Great Britain—as an apprentice or indentured servant—might bind themselves to a contract or indenture for four to six years. Passage to the colonies was typically part of the arrangement. Indentured servants had rights, and they eventually became free, although they were subject to harsh treatment and exploitation during their servitude.

In 1718, the British Parliament’s Transportation Act saw a huge increase in the shipment of convicts to the British colonies. As punishment for crimes, people were now transported and sold as indentured servants. Some indentured servants’ only "crime" was being poor. Between 1718 and 1775, more than 52,000 convicts came from the British Isles to North America, predominantly settling in Virginia and Maryland. Contract lengths for convicts were usually at least seven years.

Other countries, like France, the Netherlands, and Sweden, also forcibly sent people to their respective colonies because of crimes, vagrancy, or status as political prisoners.

• Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 contains the names of more than 50,000 women, men, and children who were deported to the North American colonies.

Finding Early Ancestors in Nationality-Related Records and Books on Ancestry^®

One way to research early immigrant ancestors is to start with the U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, which dates from the 1500s. A next step might be to look at nationality- or location-focused record collections or the digitized Immigration & Emigration Books section. Here’s a very small sampling of what’s available:

• Virginia Immigrants, 1623-1666
• New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635
• Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America (from 1625)
• Census Tables for the French Colony of Louisiana (1699-1732)
• Scandinavian Immigrants in New York, 1630-1674
• Nacogdoches, Texas, Spanish and Mexican Government Records (in Spanish; from 1729)
• Palatine German Immigration (from 1654)
• The French in the Mississippi Valley, 1740-1750

To research European immigrants who lived in the British colonies, but who came from countries other than Britain, look at collections like Names of Foreigners Who Took the Oath of Allegiance to the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1727-1775.

Other Ancestry^® Record Collections that Can Help with Early Immigrant Research

The challenges of finding information about your first immigrant ancestors might mean approaching your research from different angles. Consider looking through these types of records to hone in on an "earliest known appearance in records" date.

Church or faith-related records from the 17th and 18th centuries include documents related to people who were Quaker, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, Southern Baptist, Catholic, or Jewish, for instance. These can also include birth, baptism, or marriage records; some list the names of all immediate family members.

Legal or government-related records from the 1600s and 1700s—early land records, tax lists, and wills and probate records, or census reconstructed records—can also be helpful. Legal documents from this time are available for the original 13 British colonies as well as some states that were part of New France or New Spain, such as Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico.

Immigration and Naturalization Laws in the New United States

The final years of colonial America in the 18th century saw the American Revolution and the formation of the United States. Some foreign-born soldiers who fought for the British, like the German Hessians, decided to stay after the war and became naturalized citizens.

After securing independence, the U.S. enacted its first citizenship and naturalization laws:

• The 1790 Naturalization Act allowed any white person of good character to apply for U.S. citizenship after two years.
• In 1795, the residency requirement was extended to five years.
• In 1798, the requirement was ramped up to 14 years.

Early naturalization records held by former colonies like Connecticut, New York, and Georgia, could also help you discern a timeframe for your ancestors’ arrival.

Discovering Your Family’s Immigration Story

Does your family’s story include immigration to North America during the 17th and 18th centuries? Did one of your ancestors escape warfare in Germany, high land costs in Scotland, or religious strife in England in search of abundant land and work in Pennsylvania? Immigration records on Ancestry^®️ may help you piece together your family’s story—the challenges, motivations, and opportunities.

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