I started the Chinese Exclusion Act blog in May 2015. It now has 345 posts. About 325 are summaries of Chinese Exclusion Case files housed at the National Archives at Seattle. Some guest bloggers generously shared their family stories. About twenty posts are miscellaneous information including the 2021 potential sale of the National Archives at Seattle facility.

The posts are summaries of Chinese Exclusion Act files at the National Archives at Seattle pertaining to Chinese entering or leaving from Seattle, Port Townsend, and Sumas, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Helena, Montana; Portal, North Dakota; and Vancouver, B.C. Although these files are located in Seattle, the subject of the file may have lived anywhere in the United States. At this point, all but seven states are represented on the blog entries. Missing are Alabama, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Carolina, and West Virginia. I’ll be adding files from those states in the next few months.

This collage introduces the blog and is a small sample of photos and documents found in the case files. The files usually contain a photo, interviews, affidavits, witness statements and government correspondence. The blog is a good way for researchers to see the types of information available in the case files.