Research Tactics: Lesson 9

Discussion & Theory

Immigration

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.

Genealogy.com; Lesson 1: Introduction to Immigrant Investigations

Bring to Class This Week

1. The file for the family you are working on and flash drive for transporting new finds
2. Optional: Your family computer file to work on in class

Lesson Materials

Print out or download all of this material

• Lesson page — Getting Acquainted With and Loving Your Ancestors
• Tips for Finding Your Ancestors Part 1.pdf
• Tips for Finding Your Ancestors Part 2.pdf

Helpful Links

How To

• Connect with Your Immigrant Roots
• A Goldmine of Naturalization Records in New England
• Types of U.S. Naturalization Records
• Map of Immigration to the United States: 1880-1920

Immigration, Migration and Naturalization

• Ancestry.com Immigration and Travel Records
• Find My Past (specializes in United Kingdom records)
• My Heritage (specializes in Euro Asian and Jewish Ancestry)
• Ellis Island
• Wiki on Emigration and Immigration
• Wiki on Church History
• Fold3 Naturalization Records (Free at the Family History Center)
• List of Mayflower Passengers
• Mormon Migration
• United Kingdom
• Online Searchable Naturalization Records and Indexes
• Ships-Find your ancestor's ship
• The US Genweb Project (Some counties have links to state archives with immigration records)
• Immigration Online Genealogy Records

Homework for Next Week

1. Search each link to see if this will apply to your family
2. Optional: Add all research to your computer file
3. Optional: Print out updated Family Group Sheet with sources from your computer file
4. Update your paper files, timeline and research log and bring to class
5. Read Lesson 10

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