The past courses identified key principles and sources to use when seeking the town of foreign origin for an immigrant. It is crucial to recognize that your research efforts should always begin with sources in the country where the immigrant settled, such as the United States or Canada. This is because for the vast majority of immigrants, it is these records, in their new country, which will eventually yield the name of their ancestral home. And, as we have discussed, there is a wealth of information in the country where your ancestor settled. However, at some point in your research into the origins of an immigrant ancestor, you might finally run out of American sources to search or you might be seeking an immigrant for whom no American record seems to provide the key information you need. Under those rare circumstances, you still should not give up. It is possible, with some immigrants, to properly identify them using sources in their home country if you:
- Do not proceed too quickly into such sources.
- Know a lot of information about the immigrant and his or her family in order to effectively use foreign sources.
What Does "Know a Lot" Mean?
This information will be the result of your searches in the records of their new home. It will include the minimum identification we discussed in the first few lessons. It should include some idea of the area or region within a foreign country whence the immigrant came, for instance Yorkshire, rather than England, or Hesse rather than Prussia. It may also include immigration information (dates, ship names, etc.) and other potentially identifying information.
Once you have these minimum identification standards and have organized everything so you will have that information at your fingertips, then proceed to some foreign sources.
Just as with North American records, there is a useful approach to searching these foreign records. The process can be seen as a set of research "tactics" by which the family historian searches the most useful and readily available sources first, followed by other sources, depending on how much one has learned about the immigrant. This lesson outlines those tactics. The following seven lessons will identify the different kinds of sources used in these various tactics.
Search Compiled Records First
The first sources to search among foreign records are those records containing research previously done by others. In many cases, other family historians have already learned the name of the town from which your immigrant came. A distant, unknown relative may have the information, or indexes may contain the emigrant's birth record.
A complete review of compiled records research should include indexes to books and electronic databases of research done by others. This includes the International Genealogical Index and Ancestral File from the Family History Library, as well as commercially produced material, such as World Family Tree. Also search published family histories, periodical articles, and genealogical dictionaries or compendia within the immigrant's original country.
As with all of these tactics, the specific sources will vary from country to country, but the concept is valid. You will find more compiled records for England than most other countries, but even smaller countries, such as the Netherlands, have a significant amount of compiled records and provide a good chance that your immigrant will be identified in that literature.
Search Nationwide Records
A few foreign countries kept nationwide records. Where available and indexed, these records are an excellent tool that may identify your immigrant, even if the record itself does not focus on emigrants. For example, British countries have excellent national records, many of which are being indexed. You must, however, have enough identifying information to recognize the immigrant. Most such records were kept by the government, so in some modern countries, such as Germany or Italy, it is essential to know what former, smaller, country the immigrant came from, at the time of departure. Even distinguishing between Prussia and Bavaria may help when seeking such records. Of course, if the modern country did not exist in its current form when your immigrant left, then there will likely not be nationwide records for that time period under modern boundaries.
Search Departure Records
One thing is certain, your immigrant did leave their home country, that is what this aspect of research is all about. When they left, records were generally created, and many have survived. Remember, when they left, they were referred to as emigrants (those who leave a country). It is only in the new country that they are called immigrants.
Where possible, search those records created when the emigrant left his or her country of birth. These include passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, and other lists of emigrants. Where they exist, records of departure are generally easy to access and almost always identify from which town the emigrant left. However, not all such records have been preserved, are indexed, or are available to search. Furthermore, many of our ancestors left without permission. In such cases, few, if any, records of departure exist.
To search departure records, you must know the country, and hopefully the area or region (county or district) from which the emigrant left. If you have carefully pursued the various records we have discussed in previous lessons, you likely already know this. However, you should also learn, as far as possible the port from which he or she probably departed. You can often find this information in biographical sources in the country of arrival. Immigration sources, such as passenger arrival lists, usually identify the port of departure.
Departure records are generally under the jurisdiction of the port city (such as passenger departure lists) or the state or national government where the emigrant lived, such as permission to emigrate.
Localize the Surname
One key tactic in using foreign sources is to learn where your immigrant's surname is most common. Some surnames are more common in certain areas than in others. Except for the most common of surnames (Smith, Johnson, etc.) It may be possible to determine what region or specific area the surname is found in. In this respect, as in most of your research, this is easier if you are dealing with an uncommon surname. Because records exist at all government levels, as well as church parishes and other jurisdictions, the more closely you can determine where your ancestor came from, the more effective this tactic will be.
If you cannot learn the state or region where the emigrant lived, at least determine the general region or area where the family came from or where the surname is most common. After that, you might find emigration indexes or other sources that cover specific regions or localities.
Many North American sources, such as census records and death records, may provide at least the name of the immigrant's home province or county. In one recent case, a Bohemian immigrant to Wisconsin named his home county, Budweis, on his marriage record. This useful information allowed us to identify the correct town for his origin. Sometimes family information and traditions can name the region, province, or county. Family stories may also indicate that the place was near a particular river, seacoast, or agricultural district. Whatever clues you can find about the hometown will help narrow your search by helping you localize where the family came from.
When you search indexes (such as the International Genealogical Index) that do not identify your ancestor, you may find that most persons with that surname came from the same province. The information found using the previous tactics often helps identify the region where the surname is most common.
You can use any general index that covers a broad spectrum of the population in this manner (census, civil registration, emigration, etc.). In a future lesson, we will even discuss the use of modern telephone directories for learning where the surname may have come from.
Once you know which region the name comes from, search the records and indexes pertaining to that particular region. There may be emigration indexes or other sources available which cover only specific regions or localities.
Several kinds of books exist for most European countries that can help you localize the areas where a surname is most prevalent.
For some countries, surname books name the towns where certain family names originated. However, your ancestor's immediate family may have moved from the ancestral home years or generations before emigrating. Two particularly useful surname books are available for Switzerland and the Netherlands:
- Emil and Clothilde Meier's Familiennamenbuch Der Schwiez (3rd Ed. Zürich, Switzerland: Polygraphischer Verlag, 1989) lists the names of families as of 1962 that had citizenship in a Swiss community. The surnames are listed by the canton and village. Dates indicate when the family name first appears.
- Dr. P. J. Meertens' Nederlands Repertorium van Familienamen (Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum & Comp. N.V., 1963), with one per province, identifies the towns where certain surnames were most common.
Name etymologies can also help identify the region a name comes from, its meaning, and common spelling variations. For less common surnames these books often provide clues to localize the surname. Use such sources with caution because they may not be comprehensive in the sources they surveyed, and a name's presence in one location does not preclude it from appearing elsewhere, especially for occupational or descriptive names. Surname etymologies exist for most major countries that emigrants left. For example, an etymology for German surnames is Hans Bahlow, Deutsches Namenlexikon (München: Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1972).
Search Regional Records
Once you have identified the most likely region, state, province, or county where the emigrant lived, there may be many sources to identify him or her. With some good fortune, regional records will actually name the emigrant and indicate in which town he lived. For example, some areas of Germany took a census from time to time. Although many of those records are not indexed, they are fairly simple to search through. As you search such records, note each occurrence of the immigrant's surname. If you actually find the immigrant, you will then know the town within the region where he lived. If you don't find the immigrant, you will have narrowed your search to the towns where that surname was used within that region.
Of course, the surname will likely appear in other regions as well. This is why you should only search regional records after you are confident of the region or county where the immigrant lived. For example, research on a Scottish immigrant to Lanark County, Ontario, showed that virtually all the immigrants who arrived with him and settled in his and neighboring townships were from the county of Perth. While the surname exists in other Scottish counties, we were able to use an index to Perthshire church records to find the right person. We recognized him by his age and the name of his son, who was also born in Scotland and immigrated with his father.
Regional records vary from country to country. They may include Census or Civil Registration records where they are indexed. Many court, military, or emigration records are kept on a regional basis. In addition, there may be newspapers or periodical collections for a region. You will also often find genealogical societies whose membership and records focus on a specific region in the home country.
Search Local Records
Ultimately, if you are successful, you will have found one or more place names for the town where the immigrant lived in the old country. After all, that's what this research has been all about. You will want to review some of the key concepts from our initial lessons regarding the proper reading of that place name.
Once you are pretty certain you have located the right town, you will be searching the records of several neighboring localities where you hope the immigrant lived. In either case, you will use local records such as "Church Records" and "Civil Registration" to confirm the emigrant's origin and to extend the ancestry.
Even when you don't know the exact town, you may find searching local records to be an effective way to locate the immigrant and his or her family. As long as you know enough of the identifying information to be certain you have found the family, this is a useful approach. In one of our final lessons, we will outline the best approach to take when utilizing this tactic.
A large body of the essential source material you need to identify your ancestor in England, Germany and most other European countries is available in the United States in print and microfilm. You may not need to hire a research agent in Europe or correspond with record officials until you have exhausted these sources here. You can search most of them yourself by buying your own copies, using copies from public and university libraries on interlibrary loan, or requesting them through a family history center of the Family History Library.
Remember, your immigrant was almost certainly born after about 1580 (since the first arrivals in North America were about 1610-1620). Therefore, for the vast majority of immigrants, there is a record of them in their home country. Often it is a birth or marriage record. Proper application of the above tactics will greatly improve your chances of locating that elusive record for your elusive immigrant.
- Using the Internet site FamilySearch use the "Custom Search" feature tab to locate the International Genealogical Index (IGI).
- Do a search on your ancestor's given name and surname in the country he or she is expected to be from.
- Now do a similar search for each of his or her siblings also born in that country.
- If you know any aunts or uncles also born in that country, also do a search of their names.
- Now compare the localities with a map of that time period.
- Does there appear to be a common parish or small town locality for all of these individuals? Even if your ancestor is not listed, perhaps one of his relatives was listed.
- Look at the original sources for these individuals by entering the film number into the Family History Library Catalog portion of the same Web site. You may find many films that were not extracted into the IGI and one may contain the record of your ancestor.
- Also type in the name of the locality and have the Family History Library Catalog bring up other sources not listed in the IGI.