How to find where your ancestors came from.
Work back through your family until you reach the person who arrived, then look for the three records that say where they came from: the census, which asked about immigration in 1900 through 1930; the ship's passenger list, which U.S. law required from 1820; and their naturalization papers. Later records usually name a town; earlier ones often name only a country.
1. Find the person who arrived.
Trace one line back a generation at a time until someone's birthplace is another country. That person, or their parents, is who you're looking for. A census lists each person's birthplace, and the 1900 to 1930 censuses also asked about immigration and naturalization, which narrows the year they came.
2. Find the ship.
From January 1820, U.S. law required every ship arriving from a foreign port to hand over a list of its passengers, and the National Archives holds arrival records from about 1820 to 1982. The earliest lists name a country but not a town (the FamilySearch guide to passenger lists); later ones usually ask for much more.
3. Find their citizenship papers.
Becoming a citizen took two steps over at least five years: a declaration of intention, then a petition. Before September 27, 1906, any court could naturalize someone, so look in the county courthouse near where they lived. After that date a copy went to the federal government, and the files from 1906 to 1956 can be requested through the USCIS Genealogy Program (National Archives: naturalization records).
4. Read the place as it was then.
Borders and names change. A village recorded as Austria in 1905 may be in Poland today, so search for the place under the name and the country it had in the year of the record.
Or just ask.
AncestralFire does these steps with you. Tell it one name, and it reads your tree, searches FamilySearch Family Tree once you connect it, and tells you what it found, with the source behind each fact. A real answer:
Who was the first in my family to leave Ireland, and what became of him?
Among those with immigration dates recorded, the earliest to leave was your great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy (born about 1823 in Dunganstown, County Wexford), who immigrated to Boston around 1847. He settled in Boston, married Bridget Murphy, worked as a cooper, and died there in 1858 at about age 35.
From the Kennedy family's published tree, asked as John F. Kennedy.
See a whole conversation on How it works, or what it finds in one family: The Kennedy family tree, from Wexford to Dallas.
Keep reading.
- What is a GEDCOM file, and how to get yours. A GEDCOM file (.ged) is your family tree saved in the one format every family-tree program understands: every person, date, place and relationship, as plain text.
- How to use FamilySearch, and what to ask it. FamilySearch is free: there's only one kind of account, and it costs nothing.