Module 2 — Puerto Rico Records That Document Departure

Learn which Puerto Rican and federal records document when and where your ancestor left the island: Social Security applications, draft cards, the last civil record before migration, and how to use negative evidence.

Intermediate

Part of the Migration Patterns and Mainland Records course.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will:

Locate and interpret Social Security SS-5 application forms as migration evidence
Use WWI and WWII draft registration cards to identify mainland addresses for male ancestors
Establish the last Puerto Rico civil or church record before migration as a baseline document
Understand why passport records are rarely useful for Puerto Rican migrants after 1917
Apply negative evidence methodology when an ancestor disappears from Puerto Rico records

2.1 The Baseline Strategy

Before searching for your ancestor on the mainland, establish who they were in Puerto Rico. This means finding the last document that places them on the island — and recording every piece of identifying information it contains.

This baseline document is your anchor. Every mainland record you find later will need to match against it. When you compare names, ages, parents, and birthplaces from two different jurisdictions, you are building the case that the person in New York or Chicago is the same person who appears in the Puerto Rico record.

The stronger and more detailed your baseline document, the easier it is to confirm identity across the jurisdictional gap.

The Social Security Administration was established in 1935. Every person who applied for a Social Security number filled out Form SS-5, the original Social Security card application.

What the SS-5 Contains

Full name at time of application
Current address
Date and place of birth
Father’s full name
Mother’s full maiden name
Employer name and address at time of application
Date of application

Why the SS-5 Is Valuable for Migration Research

The address and employer fields on the SS-5 are the critical migration evidence. A Puerto Rico-born person who applied for a Social Security number from a New York City address in 1937 has documented their presence on the mainland at that date. The employer’s address may narrow the neighborhood even further.

The parents’ names — especially the mother’s full maiden name — are often the most useful fields for connecting a mainland record back to Puerto Rico civil records, where the same names appear in birth and marriage registers.

How to Access SS-5 Records

For deceased persons born 100 or more years ago: Many SS-5 records are available on FamilySearch (search “United States Social Security Applications and Claims Index”) and Ancestry (search “U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007”).

For more recently deceased persons: Submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request directly to the Social Security Administration. The SSA charges a fee per record. Processing times vary. Instructions are on the SSA FOIA page.

Research tip: The SS-5 index on Ancestry and FamilySearch shows summary data. The actual form image — which contains the address and employer fields — must be requested separately or is available on the full record where digitized. Always retrieve the image, not just the index entry.

2.3 Draft Registration Cards

Three major draft registration events produced cards that are invaluable for migration research: WWI Registration (1917–1918), the 1918 “Second Registration,” and WWII Registration (1940–1947). All three required every man in a covered age range to register at a local draft board — wherever they were living at the time.

A Puerto Rican man who had migrated to New York would register at his New York draft board, producing a mainland address on a federal record. That address is your migration evidence.

WWI Draft Registration (1917–1918)

All men between the ages of 21 and 31 registered in three rounds (June 1917, June 1918, and September 1918). Puerto Rico-born men living on the mainland registered at local boards in their city.

Each card contains: Name, age, address, employer name and address, occupation, nearest relative (often a parent or spouse still in Puerto Rico), physical description.

Available free on FamilySearch: Search “United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918.”

WWII Draft Registration (1940–1947)

The 1940 and subsequent registrations covered all men 18 to 64 at various points. The most useful for older ancestors is the 1942 “Old Man’s Draft” (officially the Fourth Registration), which captured men born April 28, 1877 through February 16, 1897 — those too old for active service but required to register. This age group is often the hardest to find in earlier records.

Each card contains: Name, age, address, employer, date and place of birth, next of kin name and address.

Available on FamilySearch and Ancestry: Search “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.”

Research tip: The “nearest relative” or “next of kin” field on draft cards frequently names a parent or sibling still living in Puerto Rico, complete with a Puerto Rico address. This is a two-for-one: the card places your ancestor on the mainland and gives you a Puerto Rico address for their family.

2.4 The Last Puerto Rico Civil or Church Record Before Migration

Establishing your ancestor’s last documented presence in Puerto Rico is as important as finding their first documented presence on the mainland.

What to Look For

Birth record of the last child born in Puerto Rico: If your ancestor had several children and the later ones were born on the mainland, the birth of the last Puerto Rico-born child brackets the migration window.
Sibling’s marriage or death record: A sibling’s Puerto Rico record from 1935, for example, that lists your ancestor as a witness places them on the island at that date.
Property record or court document: Less common but occasionally available for the late Spanish colonial and early U.S. periods.
Church records: A baptism, marriage, or burial record listing your ancestor as a godparent or witness.

How to Use This Record

Once you have the last Puerto Rico record, extract everything: full name as written, parents’ names as written, ages, witnesses’ names. Record the exact spelling of every name. These are the data points you will compare against mainland records to confirm identity.

2.5 Passport Records: Useful in Limited Cases

Puerto Ricans have been U.S. nationals since 1900 and U.S. citizens since 1917 under the Jones-Shafroth Act. Travel between Puerto Rico and the mainland has never required a passport — it is domestic travel within the United States.

Passport records are therefore rarely useful for tracing Puerto Rican migration to the mainland. A Puerto Rican migrant would only appear in passport records if they were traveling internationally (to Cuba, Latin America, Europe) at some point in their life.

When passport records might help:

Your ancestor traveled internationally before or after migrating to the mainland
You are looking for a departure record for a different journey

Where to find them: Passport applications are held by the National Archives. Ancestry has digitized passport applications from 1795 to 1925 (“U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925”). Applications contain name, birthplace, physical description, and sometimes a photograph.

2.6 Negative Evidence: When Disappearance Is the Clue

Sometimes your ancestor simply disappears from Puerto Rico records at a certain point. No death record. No later appearance in census or church records. No relatives mentioning them in documents.

This absence, when properly documented, is itself evidence of migration.

How to document negative evidence correctly:

Define what you searched. List every source you checked that should contain the person if they were still on the island: municipal civil records (births, marriages, deaths), FamilySearch Puerto Rico collections, church records for the relevant parish, U.S. census records for Puerto Rico (1910, 1920, 1930, 1940).
Define the time window. If you can find them in the 1920 Puerto Rico census but not in 1930, migration occurred sometime between 1920 and 1930.
State the inference explicitly. “The absence of [Name] from the 1930 and 1940 Puerto Rico census, combined with the absence of a death record in [Municipality] between 1920 and 1940, suggests that [Name] left the island during the 1920s.”
Search for the positive evidence next. The negative evidence tells you to look on the mainland. Module 3 covers where to look.

GPS note: Negative evidence is classified as indirect evidence under the Three-Layer Framework. It supports a conclusion but rarely proves one on its own. Combine it with at least one positive mainland record to build a defensible conclusion.

What’s Next

Module 3 covers U.S. federal records for Puerto Rican migrants: census records, the Social Security Death Index, military service files, and why you will not find naturalization records for most Puerto Rican migrants.

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