America is a land of immigrants. So it is really not a surprise if you found out that you descended from several ancestors who originated from other countries. Realizing this is one thing; knowing which ancestor came from which place is entirely a different matter.
Finding the origin of your immigrant ancestors is not simply knowing where they were born but identifying which town they came from. To do this, gather as much information about your immigrant ancestors as you can.
Begin by knowing the name. This may sound very simple but many immigrants changed their names when they arrive to America. And some families can only recall vague information about their ancestors’ migration history. Dig deep to find the real names of your ancestors.
Then, you have to pinpoint important date of events that happened in your ancestors’ country of origin. Date of birth will come in handy but marriage certificate or baptismal certificate is sufficient enough. Exact date is necessary, including the date, the month and the year and not just an approximate date.
Third, you need to know about your ancestor’s affiliations from their country of origin. Since many people share the same name in the same place at the same time, knowing this information is vital to narrow down your search.
Finally, you need the place of origin. Again, this is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, this is the most difficult information to obtain. Because records in foreign land are kept in the local level, narrowing down your search down to one country is a great start but not so helpful. Thus, we shall discuss this further.
Information about your ancestors’ exact place of origin can known through family history and tradition, ethnic background, religion, names of friends and neighbors, family heirlooms and name changes. But since these are second- or even third- or fourth-hand information, they can be subject to errors.
Official records, on the other hand, are more reliable. Vital information about your place of origin can be found on church records, land records, cemetery records, military records, family records, naturalization records, social security records and census records. Passports, probate, newspaper and obituaries, periodicals, published family history and passenger list can contain the place of origin as well.
Basically, what we have discussed here are the facts that you must learn to find the origin of your immigrant ancestors and the ways to find this information. But since the availability of family records depends widely from ancestor to ancestor, you have to exhaust all possible sources to get what you are looking for.
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