For most genealogists, a main objective is to get back to the “old country.” That is often where the trail grows cold. Back in the days when we had to rely on printed sources, if you did not already know your ancestor’s point of origin, it was very difficult to find it. However, there is now a great deal of information available on the Internet and more is being digitized by volunteers and organizations every single day.
So how does one go about such a search? Begin by gathering as much information as possible from other family members; especially the elderly. Ask for oral traditions and documents, especially birth and death records. You may also want to search newspaper archives and published genealogies. Do not forget to use a search engine to search on surnames or ships’ names. Search www.books.google.com, or http://www.archive.org/index.php for possible digital versions of books or newspaper articles. This should give you enough information to start searching census records for ancestors. Census information, of course, is not infallible but it is a good place to begin. U.S. federal censuses beginning in 1850 asked for place of birth, and from 1900 to 1930 the census asked for year of immigration. Ancestry.com has all of the censuses, and is easy to search. (Bangor Public Library has free Ancestry access.)
Your research will probably yield a country of origin and a range of dates during which your ancestor may have immigrated. Now you should investigate immigration patterns and where to start your search depending on nationality and date of arrival. For example, many 19th century European families often emigrated with family and friends from the same town. This “first wave” of immigrants usually settled in the major cities and spread out from there. The five major ports of arrival were: New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Then you ought to investigate where you might find lists of passengers for the time period. For example, Ellis Island was only operating from 1892 to 1924. Until 1819 there was no federal law requiring that passengers entering the United States be identified. Prior to this date, passengers, if listed at all, were often listed as “cargo”! You can learn about general immigration patterns and passenger search information from any good basic instructional genealogy book or website.
In addition to www.ancestry.com’s paid membership there are many free websites which have passenger lists. Some such free sources are: www.ellisisland.org; The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, www.immigrantships.net ; Olive Tree Genealogy at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ote/indexshp.htm and of course, www.cyndislist.com/ships.htm.
There is a great deal of information out there, and each group organizes it as they see fit, so take the time to investigate how each website works, which could save you time in the end. Good luck and have fun!
Editor’s note: This regular column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society. The group meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501. Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft, who has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com.
