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INTRODUCTION
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Almost
everyone has had a desire to know from where his or her ancestors
emigrated. If you are looking at this
page you probably established the basic goal of finding your “Old World” country
or countries of origin. Once this
discovery is made you will most likely begin to track your ancestors back in
time and place. Many times we are
drawn so deeply into the story it is difficult to stop searching because
there are always more relationships to be proved and details of the ancestral
locations to be added to your knowledge base.
There
is no single record source that can be counted on the provide your with the
information you will require to locate your ancestral home. Rather there are a multitude of records
that may, depending on the time period and ethnic nature of the family,
provide the necessary information. As
such we have put this web page together for you to utilize as a resource assist
in tracking down viable information regarding your immigrant ancestor such
as, when he or she emigrated from the “Old Country”, as well as when and
where they arrived in the “New World”.
Finding an immigrant ancestor's place of origin is the key to finding
earlier generations of the family. It provides access to many family history
resources in that home area. Once you know a former place of residence or a
birthplace, you may be able to add more generations to your pedigree.
Learning about your family's history and experiences can be a source of
enjoyment and education for you and your family.
Tracing immigrant origins can be one of the hardest parts of family
history research. Even if you know which country your family came from, it
can still be hard to identify a specific hometown or birthplace. |
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OUR IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS
The LINKS below will take you to complete listings with
corresponding information, about sources and citations of OUR ANCESTORS identified as an immigrant
from the Old World to America. |
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IMMIGRANT
ANCESTORS - Bozarth; Peiffer; Quigley; Rhubart; and allied families IMMIGRANT
ANCESTORS - Moreland; McVicker; Pinnell; Scruggs; and allied families
IMMIGRANT
ANCESTORS - Dellinger; Knecht; Pfeffer; Silar; and allied families
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Tracing Immigrant Origins
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Source: Family Search Step
1: Identify What You Know about the
Immigrant To successfully
determine an immigrant's place of origin, you need to learn some minimum
facts about him or her. This will help you select record types to search and
identify the immigrant in those records. Additional information can also be
helpful. Before trying to find an
immigrant's place of origin, be sure you have learned as much of the
following as possible: ·
The immigrant's name. Find both the given names and surname (last
name), including middle names (such as Johann Friedrich Wolfgang Sticht). Try
to learn the name used in the country of origin and any variations of it. ·
A date. A birth date is most preferable, but if you
cannot find one, use a marriage, confirmation, baptismal, or military release
date, or another date of an event that happened in the country of origin. Try
to find an entire date (day, month, and year), but you may be able to
identify the immigrant with an approximate year. ·
A place. Learn as much as you can about where the
immigrant came from, such as the province, county, or region. Knowing as
specific a place as possible helps you distinguish between the immigrant and
others of the same name. Eventually, you will have to learn the specific town
where the immigrant came from. Use this outline to learn this information. ·
A relative. Learning the name of a relative of
the immigrant, such as the father, helps you identify your ancestor in
country-of-origin records. If you cannot learn the father's name, try to
learn the name of the mother, spouse, brother, sister, or other close relative
(such as an aunt or uncle). ·
Additional Information. While minimum identification helps you
recognize your ancestor in country-of-origin records, additional information
could provide clues to the place of origin or confirm that you have found the
right family. If possible, learn the following about the immigrant: ·
Other family members. Learn about
both parents, his or her spouse, all brothers and sisters, and any children.
This information helps you identify him or her in native records. Also, you
may discover the place of origin by finding a relative's place of origin. ·
Friends and neighbors. Many
immigrants traveled in groups or settled among friends from their native
lands. Searching for friends or neighbors might reveal an immigrant's place
of origin. ·
Family stories and traditions. While many
family traditions are exaggerated (such as those about stowaways), they may
include accurate facts. Such things as the area of the country he or she came
from, the industry in the native district, occupations, nearby towns, rivers,
mountains, or other features could provide clues to the place of origin. ·
Religion. Religious
groups in many countries create records. By learning the immigrant's religion,
you can further identify him or her, determine others he or she may have
traveled with, limit your searches to the records most likely to contain
useful information, and gain clues to the region where he or she lived. For
example, a Protestant Irishman most likely came from northern Ireland, not
central or southern Ireland.
Select an immigrant you want to
learn about. Choose one for whom you have minimum identification. It helps to
know where the immigrant lived in the country of arrival and any names used
there (such as a woman's married name). Choose one of the goals discussed
below. Then use the appropriate “Records Selection Table” to select records
that might contain that information. Primary Goal. The primary goal is to find the immigrant's place
of origin. With the place of origin you can begin using records from the
hometown to extend the immigrant's ancestry or pursue other research goals.
If you do not yet have enough information to find the place of origin, choose
one of the secondary goals below. Secondary Goals. Other information about an immigrant is often
helpful when searching for a place of origin. Even records that say nothing
about the place of origin may give clues leading to records that name the
hometown. One clue can lead to another until you find a record showing the
town of origin. Possible secondary goals include: ·
Date of immigration. An immigration
date leads to passenger lists and other records. With the immigration date, you
can also figure out when the immigrant first appears in other records in the
new country, when he was released from the military in the old country, or
when he or she applied for citizenship. ·
Place of departure. Knowing where
an immigrant left from may help you find departure lists and indexes, the
ship's name, and newspaper and police lists. ·
Place of arrival. Immigrants
often stayed in the port of arrival for months or years before moving on. In
such cases, you can search naturalization, church, and vital records in that
location. ·
Ship's name and related data. The name of
the ship a person traveled on will help you use passenger lists or find the
names of other immigrants in the group. ·
Names of other immigrants in the group. Immigrants
often traveled in groups or with relatives. They often settled close to
people they knew in the old country. If you cannot find a person's place of
origin, learn about relatives, neighbors, fellow passengers, or a minister
who may have immigrated from the same hometown. ·
Immigrant's original country or region. Sometimes
knowing the country or region a person left from lets you begin searching the
records of that area. It may also imply the place of departure. ·
Immigrant's name before immigrating. This helps
identify a person in country-of-origin records. Sometimes the name, or part
of one, is a clue to the immigrant's original country or region.
This outline can help you evaluate the content,
availability, ease of use, time period covered, and reliability of records.
It can also indicate if your ancestor is likely to be listed. For information
on a specific country, see the appropriate national research outline. It is almost always best to first search
the sources in the country where the immigrant finally settled. Do not switch
to records from the country-of-origin too soon in your search.
You will most likely find the immigrant's birthplace or hometown in
country-of-arrival records, which are usually easier to use. The genealogical and historical records
needed to determine an immigrant's place of origin fall into two
categories: Compiled Records. Someone else
may have already researched the immigrant. This is especially true if the
person immigrated before about 1800. Compiled records include: ·
Printed family histories and genealogies. ·
Family information published in periodicals and
newsletters. ·
Biographies. ·
Local histories. ·
Manuscript collections of family information. ·
Databases of family information (such as
FamilySearch™ and the Family Group Records Collections). ·
Hereditary and lineage society records. * Many records containing previous research are
described in the “Biography,” “Genealogy,” “History,” “Periodicals,” and
“Societies” sections of part two and part three. Use such sources carefully
because the information is secondary and may contain some inaccuracies. Original Records. After
searching compiled records, search the existing records of: ·
Each place where the immigrant lived. ·
The complete time period when he or she lived
there. ·
All jurisdictions that may have kept records
about him or her (town, church, county, state, and federal). Most record
types described in this outline are original records, such as “Church
Records,” “Emigration and Immigration,” “Naturalization,” or “Vital Records.”
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Web
resources
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This search engine may provide you with additional |
information
to assist with your
research about this topic. |
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The following are links to websites that may provide you with specific genealogical information to help you to find out more about the immigration and/or naturalization of your ancestor(s). |
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· Immigration Emigration & Naturalization Research in Genealogy ·
Immigration
& Travel - Ancestry.com ($) |
·
Imigration
& Naturalization – Cyndi’s List |
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·
Immigration &
Naturalization Records- Search
Genealogy · Emigration & Immigration
Records & Links · Immigration
& Travel -
Ancestry.com ($) · Naturalization
Records – Rootsweb.com |
· Naturalization
Records (NARA) ·
Research
In Immigration & Naturalization Records ·
Immigration
Records/ Naturalization Records- Ancestors |
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·
Ships Passenger
Lists (The Olive Tree) ·
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild ·
List Of
Ships To Philadelphia, PA 1727-1808 ·
Resources for Finding Passenger Arrival Records at the Port
of New Orleans, Louisiana |
· Pennsylvania
German Pioneers (ProGenealogists) · What Passenger Lists Are
Online? · Immigration
& Travel - Ancestry.com ($) |
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· A collection of upwards of thirty thousand names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and other immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776. This book by I. Daniel Rupp was published in 1876 and contains 554 pages. The reader is provided with a statement of the names of ships, when they sailed, and the date of their arrival at Philadelphia, chronologically arranged, together with the necessary historical and other notes, also, an appendix containing lists of more than one thousand German and French names in New York prior to 1712. Each voyage was recorded separately and so searching required looking separately on approximately 320 different lists. At Neil Elvick's Family History Web Site most of the names have been combined into a single Alphabetized Master List so that names could be searched more efficiently. |
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This
Link Button will take you to our library of genealogy
reference books. Here you will find |
reference
books about this subject as well as other books that can
assist you with your research. |
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Contact Information
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CONTACT
INFORMATION
We do like to hear
from others who are researching the same people and surnames. We need your
help to keep growing! So please Email photos, stories,
and other appropriate information about this topic. RULES OF USE We only ask that if you have a personal website
please create a link to our Home Page. -- This webpage was last updated on
-- 01 July 2012 |
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