Introduction to Immigrant Investigations
Genealogy 102: Introduction to Tracing Immigrant Origins, Lesson 1
Because America is a nation of immigrants, one of the most requested educational topics among family history enthusiasts is how to find the origins of immigrant ancestors. To trace your immigrant ancestry you must have an exact location in the homeland.
More than 50,000,000 immigrants have arrived on America's shores. Many of them share your ancestor's name. How in the world can you tell which one is YOUR immigrant ancestor? But WAIT. You may have more than just one immigrant ancestor. If you are like most Americans, you may have dozens of immigrant ancestors. Some may have come on the Mayflower and some may have come through Ellis Island in this very century. In the country your ancestors came from there are even more people with your ancestor's name.
The biggest problem most family historians face is not only learning the place their ancestors came from but then identifying those immigrants in their home towns. Historians use key information as identifiers to be certain they are discussing the same person in various time periods in various locations. These are the same identifiers you need to use for your immigrant ancestors.
Four Facts
For each of your immigrant ancestors you will need to learn the following four facts:
- First you need to know the name of the immigrant. This may not be as simple as it sounds. Some families only have a vague tradition about somebody who immigrated sometime in the past. Clearly this won't do! Some immigrants changed their names or Anglicized them when they came to this new English speaking country. Be sure you learn the complete foreign version of your immigrant ancestor's name.
- You need the date of an event that happened to your immigrant ancestor in the old country. Birth dates are preferable, but a marriage in a foreign country, or another event will suffice. Try to determine as specific a date as possible, including the day, month, and year, not just an approximate date.
- You need to learn the name of a relative affiliated (connected) with the ancestor in the old country. In some towns, many people shared the same names and may even be born about the same time period. Only when you know a specific relative's name will you know you have found the same person in the homeland.
- Lastly, you need the place of origin. Like the date, this needs to be as specific as possible. Records in your ancestor's countries were kept at a local level. There are virtually no nation-wide indexes in foreign countries. This fourth fact is usually the most difficult for family historians to obtain.
During the course of these lessons, much of our focus will be on methods and sources for learning this elusive fourth fact.
Additional Facts
While the four facts described on the previous page will identify your ancestors in their home towns, during the course of your research, you'll want to uncover additional facts and information about the immigrant. These may assist you in finding the four key facts above and will certainly enhance the history aspect of your family history. Among others, the facts you should be watching for include:
- Family stories and traditions
- Family heirlooms
- Names of friends and neighbors
- The religion of the immigrant family
- The family's ethnic background
- Name changes -- both given and surnames
Where to Find This Information
Among American genealogical records, there is no one record source that will unfailingly tell you the town an immigrant may have come from. Depending on your ancestor's ethnic group, religious preference, time period of immigration, and other factors, that key piece of information, his home town, may be recorded in any (or none) of a dozen or more different sources.
As we discuss the various sources in future lessons, we will describe how to use each specific source for finding your immigrant ancestor's home and when they are more effective in reaching this objective. Among the sources we will be discussing are:
As we discuss the various sources in future lessons, we will describe how to use each specific source for finding your immigrant ancestor's home and when they are more effective in reaching this objective. Among the sources we will be discussing are:
- Biographical sources
- Border crossings
- Cemetery records
- Census records
- Church records
- Court records
- Family records
- Land records
- Military records
- Naturalization records
- Obituaries and newspapers
- Passenger lists
- Passports
- Periodicals
- Probate
- Published family histories
- Social Security records
- Vital records
This list is alphabetical, as the priority for searching these records changes from ancestor to ancestor. But even before we discuss these sources in depth, we need to talk about principles related to identifying both the immigrant and his home town.
The next lesson will discuss the principles related to identifying your ancestors and how to find his or her place of birth or residence. Go on to the next screen to answer some important questions.
Things You Should Know About Tracing Immigrant Origins
This basic lesson prepared you to answer the following questions.:
- What four facts must you learn to find your immigrant ancestor's origins?
- Complete name
- Date of an event in the "old country" that involved your ancestor.
- Name of a relative in the homeland
- The place of origin.
- Where can you find this information?
- It depends on your ancestor's ethnic group, religious preference, time period of immigration and other factors.
About Genealogy Research Associates
Karen Clifford is the Founder and President of Genealogy Research Associates. She is an Accredited Genealogist, an instructor in an Associates Degree program in Library Science-Genealogy and Computers at Hartnell College (Salinas, California) and Monterey Peninsula College (Monterey, California). She has authored several family histories and textbooks including Genealogy & Computers for the Complete Beginner; Genealogy & Computers for the Determined Researcher; Genealogy & Computers for the Advanced Researcher, and Becoming an Accredited Genealogist.
Karen currently serves as Vice-president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and Vice-president of the Utah Genealogical Association (UGA). She is a member of the California State Genealogy Alliance, the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society. In 1998 and 1999, Karen served as Director of UGA's Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.
She has received several awards for her volunteer work in the genealogy community including the FGS Award of Merit and the FGS Outstanding Delegate Award.