Why Your Immigrant Ancestors Came Here 'Legally'

Learn the truth about your ancestors' immigration and citizenship process.

Years ago when women wore slips beneath their dresses and skirts, other women would tell them—very discreetly—if their slip was showing. They'd try to save the lady any further embarrassment. Well, if you're still bragging "My ancestors came here legally," I must tell you, your slip is showing.

Of course they came here legally. The process was incredibly easy for them. Basically, if your immigrant ancestors were not Asian, senile, or likely to become a public charge, all they had to do was show up. And here's why I say that.

United States Immigration Laws, 1790–1952

Let's look at the immigration laws that likely affected your ancestors. It's a long list, but it probably had zero impact on your immigrant ancestors unless they are most types of Asian.

• 1790. The first U.S. immigration law required you to be a free white person who'd been in the United States for 2 years, and in one state for 1 year.
• 1795. This law required residency of 5 years with a 3-year notice of intention.
• 1798. This law, repealed in 1802, required residency of 14 years with a 5-year notice of intention.
• 1824. This law reduced the waiting period after declaration of intention to 2 years.
• 1882. This law barred Chinese citizens.
• 1891. This law barred polygamists and people with a contagious disease.
• 1903. This law barred anarchists, beggars, and pimps.
• 1917. This law had 2 requirements: (1) do not be Asian (Filipinos and Japanese excluded), and (2) be able to read any single language if you're over age 16.
• 1921. Immigration quotas began. This law capped new immigrants at 3% of the number of their countrymen living in the United States per the 1910 census. For example, if the United States had 100,000 Belgians, only 3,000 people from Belgium (3% of 100,000) could enter per year. This cap did not apply to the Western Hemisphere. There was a total immigration cap of 350,000 people in a year. Asians were still barred.
• 1922. Before this year, women received citizenship through their husband. They didn't need to file for their own naturalization.
• 1924. This law reduced the cap from 3% to 2% of the current population from certain countries (based on 1890 census numbers). It also reduced the total immigration cap to 165,000 people in total. Asians were still barred.
• 1942. This law allowed the immigration of temporary agricultural workers from Mexico.
• 1943. This law once again focused on the Chinese. Chinese people already living in the United States could now apply for naturalization. A total of 105 (one hundred and five) new Chinese immigrants could enter the country.
• 1952. This law ended the exclusion of Asians. It slashed the immigration cap to one sixth of one percent (0.0016666666666667) of each nationality (based on 1920 census numbers). (This is why I have Italian-born cousins who went to Canada.) After 1952 people no longer needed to file a Declaration of Intention.

Before 1906 you could file for citizenship at any court—local, county, state, or federal. Very convenient. And before 27 Sep 1906, declaration of intention forms were as simple as:

• name
• country of birth
• date of application.

After that date they added:

• town of birth
• port and date of arrival
• physical description (plus a photo starting in 1929)
• names of wife and children.

That's not exactly a burden for anyone. The petition for naturalization form also asked for:

• residence and occupation
• prior citizenship
• when they began living here and for how long
• residence of wife and children.

Here's what everything above boils down to for most Americans' immigrant ancestors. Be white, somewhat self-sufficient, and file papers that barely ask any questions. That's all it took to immigrate to the United States legally and become a citizen.

The Immigration Process Today

Before you can apply for citizenship today, you must have "Permanent Resident" status. That means you must be eligible for a Green Card through one of several paths, including:

• being an immediate family member of a United States citizen
• having immigrant worker status which usually requires an excellent job
• being a religious worker, international broadcaster, or a NATO employee
• having asylum or refugee status for at least one year (each of which has its own hurdles to overcome)
• being a human trafficking or crime victim
• being the victim of battery or extreme cruelty
• having lived in the United States continuously since before 1 Jan 1972

If you meet any of those criteria, you may be eligible for Permanent Resident status. If you achieve that, you're ready to begin the citizenship process. To be eligible to apply for United States citizenship today, ALL of the following must be true:

1. You must be at least 18 years old.
2. You must be a Permanent Resident for at least 5 years (or 3–5 years IF you've been married to a citizen for at least the past 3 years AND they've been a citizen for at least the past 3 years AND you haven't been out of the United States for 18 months or more).
3. You must not have been out of the United States for 30 months of more (UNLESS you were serving on board a United States vessel OR you were under contract to the United States government OR you were performing ministerial or priestly functions for a United States-approved religious denomination).
4. You must not have taken a trip outside the United States that lasted a year or more (UNLESS you have an approved "Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes").
5. You must have lived in the district or state in which you're applying for citizenship for the last 3 months.
6. You must be able to read, write, and speak basic English (UNLESS you're over 50 and have been a Permanent Resident for at least 20 years OR you're over 55 and have been a Permanent Resident for at least 15 years OR you have a medical disability form signed by a doctor).
7. You must be knowledgeable about the fundamentals of United States history and the form and principles of the United States government (UNLESS you have a medical disability form signed by a doctor).
8. You must be a person of good moral character.
9. You must be a female OR a male registered with the Selective Service OR a male who didn't enter the United States before the age of 26 OR a male with a "Status Information Letter" from Selective Service explaining why you were in the United States between the ages of 18 and 26 but did not register OR a male between 18 and 26 who is in the United States as a lawful non-immigrant.
10. You must never have deserted from the United States Armed Forces.
11. You must be never have received an exemption or discharge from the United States Armed Forces on the grounds that you are an alien.
12. You must be willing to perform either military or civilian service for the United States if required by law.
13. You must be willing to support the Constitution of the United States.
14. You must understand and be willing to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.

If you are eligible for United States citizenship based on the list above, you may now:

• collect the necessary documents to demonstrate your eligibility (these include a copy of your Permanent Resident Card AND payment for the $725 application fee and biometrics fee; this may also include proof of legal name change, marriage certificate, spouse's birth certificate and passport, divorce decree, tax returns, and a whole lot more)
• complete an application for naturalization (this includes 100 questions on American history and government that Americans learned in high school and have likely forgotten)
• have your biometrics taken if applicable (fingerprints, photograph, signature)
• complete an interview
• wait for a decision
• if approved, take the oath of allegiance.

The information about today's citizenship process outlined above comes from the website of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

As you can see, the immigration and citizenship process is much tougher today than it was for your ancestors decades or a century or more ago. My immigrant ancestors were not escaping gang warfare, a war-torn nation, or religious persecution. They were leaving a life of poverty to come to a land of opportunity. They had relatives who came before them and were doing well. The relatives they left behind in the old country survived. That's not the case for many of today's immigrants.

It was not an enormous challenge for your 1800s–1900s immigrant ancestor to come to the United States and become a citizen. They made it through a simple process with little or no education. And you have them to thank—your immigrants—for your citizenship. You were merely born where you were born.

You dishonor your immigrant ancestors by saying "my people came here legally". That's why I hate it when people say that like a brag. Of course they came here legally. But how would they fare today?

Find immigration and naturalization documents for your family tree:

• 8 Tips for Researching Your Immigrant Ancestor
• 6 Key Genealogy Facts on a Ship Manifest
• Overlooked Website Finds Immigrant Ancestors
• What to Find on Your Ancestor's Naturalization Papers
• Naturalization Papers Answer Many Genealogy Questions
• Tying Up Loose Ends with Naturalization Papers

8 Tips for Researching Your Immigrant Ancestor

When my son's fiancé lost her father in 2021, I offered to research her family tree. It's become something of a tradition for me. I did the same for my brother's wife, my 1st cousins, and last week for my 2nd cousins when their father died.

For my son's fiancé, you have to go back to generation 12 in her ancestors report to learn that her last name is French. In generation 13, we see she's a descendant of the Dutch/German family Rittenhouse. That's a very famous family in Philadelphia. My sister-in-law's German/Jewish origin shows up in her 2nd great grandfather, born in 1853.

But for my all-Italian cousins, the immigrant experience is much closer:

• My 1st cousins' father immigrated as an infant in 1929.
• My 2nd cousins' grandfather immigrated in 1920.
• My grandfathers immigrated in 1914 and 1920.

An immigrant ancestor may be the key to your family tree. These 8 tips help you find them.

While researching your immigrant ancestors, it's important to:

1. Understand the local immigration laws when your ancestor arrived. If your ancestors came to America, take a look at how easy it was, as long as you weren't Chinese. See "How Did Immigration Laws Guide Your Ancestors?"
2. Pull every available fact from the ship manifest. I love the Ellis Island ship manifests because they contain a ton of details. To make sure you don't overlook any, see "6 Key Genealogy Facts on a Ship Manifest." If your ancestors came earlier than 1892, you'll find far fewer details.
3. Read about the immigrant processing experience. At Ellis Island, doctors spent an average of 6 seconds inspecting each immigrant. They deported only 2% of immigrants back to their country of origin. Two percent! These people were ill, likely to become a public charge, or had stowed away aboard the ship. To find out more about the experience, see "5 Ellis Island Videos Dispel Immigration Myths."
4. Learn about the history of your ancestor's country at the time they left. Something was going on at home that compelled your ancestor to leave. No one leaves home when conditions are fine. Read "Why Did Your Ancestor Leave Home?"
5. Look for more than one voyage. My maternal 2nd great grandfather Antonio was my first immigrant ancestor. He came to New York in 1890, 1892, and 1895 before going back to Italy to retrieve his family in 1898. My paternal great grandfather Francesco came to America in 1903, 1909, 1913, and 1929. He never stayed long. He earned some money and went back home to his family in Italy. His immigration records showed me that his final trip was to visit my grandfather and aunt in Ohio. Read "Great Grandpa Was a Bird of Passage" for a look at serial immigrants like Francesco.
6. Check for more than a ship manifest. When my mom's 1st cousin's husband died, I researched his family. His naturalization papers provided a wealth of information. If you can't find their ship manifest, look for naturalization papers. They can tell you the name of the ship and date of its arrival, and tons more about the family. Find out what you can learn by reading "Here's Why Genealogists Love Immigrants." And don't forget passport applications. It's amazing when you get your first look at a photograph of your relative on their application.
   
7. See who sailed with your relatives. I discovered a "lost" branch of my family when I looked into the people sailing with my family. One had my family name of Saviano, and the other had a name I knew was from the same town. See how I used clues to finally explain our relationship to our cousin Rita. Read "Why You Should Track Down the Extra Cousin."
8. Take a look at other countries. Immigration restrictions may have led your ancestor's brother to sail to another country. I have cousins who went to Canada when they couldn't get into America. Others went to Brazil and Argentina. To find those who went to South America, see:
   • "Overlooked Website Finds Immigrant Ancestors" and
   • "Finding Relatives Who Sailed to South America."

Ship manifests and naturalization papers are priceless to your family history research. Your immigrant ancestor connects you to your ancestral homeland. For some people, like my son's fianc
é, finding that immigrant is their first clue to their origins. She had no idea she was French, German, and Dutch. My brother's wife didn't know her ancestors were Jewish because her father wasn't.

Remember these 8 tips for researching your immigrant ancestor. Don't leave any facts on the table!

Overlooked Website Finds Immigrant Ancestors

I'll bet we all do it. We save notes or bookmarks to remind us of a genealogy find we need to explore. And then we forget all about it. I found a web address and single sentence on line 420 of my constantly updated text file named Notebook.txt. It says this:

http://www.ciseionline.it/portomondo
Search for family names; based on dates and ship names, piece together families.

This free-access Italian website belongs to CISEI, an organization that translates to the International Center for Italian Emigration Studies. The site provides a simple search form that lets you find Italian relatives who emigrated to:

• Brazil
• The United States
• Argentina
• Canada
• Australia

And you can search all 5 locations at once.

The key benefits of this site, which does not show you the actual ship manifests, are:

• Italians compiled much of the information. They're less likely to mangle the spelling of an Italian name.
• You'll get each key detail from a manifest typed out clearly and with great care.
• You'll get details about the ship, a photo*, migration statistics, and links to more information.
  * The photo may not be the actual ship, but it will say so.
• You'll see a map of the long migration path across the ocean.
• It's free!

Search 5 countries at once on this free website to see where your cousins disappeared to.

Start Your Search with a Name

Remember, you can copy the site's URL into Google Translate and click the result to see the site in your language.

To use the search form:

• Enter a last name in the first box. This is mandatory. Wild characters like * and ? do not work. Incomplete names do not work.
• Enter a first name if you choose. This can be helpful if you would otherwise get too many results.
• Choose a destination country, or keep the Everyone/Tutti selection, to search all available ports at once.
• Click the button to submit your search.

To test this search engine, I searched for a record I know very well. It's my 2nd great grandfather's 1898 trip back to America with his whole family. He'd been to New York 2 or 3 times before this, and the last time, he left his eldest son in the Bronx to await the whole family.

When you find the result you want, click the icon in the column on the right. You'll see a full transcript of this line from the ship manifest. I was happy to see that the results were all correct. I already knew the ship name (California). I knew my relatives were heading to 149th Street in the Bronx, New York. I knew they were joining the eldest son in the family, Simplicio Saviano.

A second search for only the last name Saviano let me find the rest of the family. I already saw that the arrival date was 8 June 1898 (written here as 08/06/1898), so they were easy to spot.

With a few more clicks, I found:

• 13 people named Saviano who emigrated to Brazil
• 6 who went to Argentina
• 8 who went to Australia
• 122 who came to the USA.

I can check my family tree and vital records to try to identify cousins in these lists.

The immigration path looks daunting, doesn't it? Find out more about your ancestor's journey.

Be on the Lookout

The main page tells you which years this database includes for which ports. There's such a variety that I won't list them here. But if you don't find your person, check to see if the database covers their year of arrival.

I didn't find my great grandparents' arrival in July 1899, and the website says it should be there. I didn't find either of my grandfathers' arrivals, either. Still, I'm excited by what I can learn from this very concentrated database of emigrants. I'm especially interested in family members who went to Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. They could help tie up some loose ends.

I noticed a few name abbreviations that tell me that's how the manifest shows the name. For instance, I found one Francesco Iamarino listed as "FCO." complete with the period at the end. Another Francesco is "FRANCO" on his manifest. Yet another, this one a Francesco Saverio, is "FRANO.SAVO." These people will be harder to find, so you should leave the first name blank on the search form and try again.

Once you've done a search or two, you shouldn't need Google Translate to get the facts you want. Some headings on the pages are images, so Google can't translate them for you. But, with the Google Translate app on your phone, you can aim your phone at the screen to see a translation. (If you're doing the search on your phone, you may need to borrow a second phone!)

Hurray! Another genealogy project! How late can you stay up tonight?

And speaking of immigration:

• 5 Ellis Island Videos Dispel Immigration Myths
• Who Was Your First Immigrant Ancestor?
• 6 Key Genealogy Facts on a Ship Manifest

5 Ellis Island Videos Dispel Immigration Myths

Some family history myths never seem to die. Perhaps the biggest one is "my ancestor's name was changed at Ellis Island." Despite what you see in "The Godfather" or its parody "Mafia!" (where they rename an immigrant boy Vincenzo Armani Windbreaker), it didn't happen.

Ask yourself this. When you board an airplane, does the airline know your name and home address? Yes, they do. If you board a cruise ship, does that company know who each passenger is? Absolutely yes.

In fact, they recorded everyone's details at the port of departure and gave them a basic inspection. It was in the shipping company's best interests to turn away anyone who would be rejected in New York. Why? Because the company had to pay the return fare for any rejected immigrant.

East Coast Immigration

Visit the Ellis Island Foundation online to see 5 videos that detail your ancestor's immigration experience. Here are some of the key points from these educational and informational videos.

1. The immigration process is much more difficult now that it was when your grandparents arrived. For the most part, all you had to do was arrive, have a place to go, and not have a contagious disease. The entire process happened within hours.

2. The medical inspection lasted a few seconds. The staff had an average of 6 seconds to look at an immigrant and decide if they were healthy enough. They checked for one contagious eye disease called trachoma that was a big problem at the time. To do this, they had to turn the immigrant's upper eyelid inside out to look for bumps. If the person was sick, they might stay in the building's dormitory until they recovered.

During the Ellis Island years, European immigrants went through a relatively speedy entry process.

3. Ships had a manifest with each passenger's name and information when they arrived. They turned the manifests over to the Ellis Island officials. In the Great Hall of Ellis Island, people waited in line for hours to speak to an inspector. Translators were there to assist. The inspectors asked questions to see if a passenger's answers matched what was on the ship manifest. They asked questions like, "Where are you going?"

4. About 1 in 10 immigrants also had to go before a board of special inquiry. They had to wait in the dormitory for their hearing. After answering several more questions, the majority passed and went on their way. In fact, Ellis Island denied entry to only 2% of immigrants.

Of course your ancestor came here legally. It was so easy to do.

West Coast Immigration

The Ellis Island videos mention that their immigrants came from Europe. Asian immigrants arrived at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco. My husband's Japanese ancestors arrived there. Recently I found the manifest showing his grandmother Hanako's detention at the facility.

Asian immigrants faced a longer, tougher entry process at Angel Island in San Francisco.

I found her on a page filled with woman who had 2 things in common:

1. Many had a rubber stamp next to their name that says Photograph Marriage. We all believed Hanako was a "picture bride," but she denied it. Now we have this proof as well as what seems to be the actual photograph.
2. Most of the people on the page had uncinariasis, also known as hookworm. Officials labeled these immigrants as having a "dangerous contagious disease." The people were all detained, treated, and released. Many of the contagious picture brides are also labeled L.P.C.: likely public charge. That seems odd when they had an arranged husband to meet them.

It looks as though they held Hanako for 18 days before her husband took her to her new home.

Immigration was much harder at Angel Island because of prejudice against Asians and the Chinese Exclusion Act. If there were European immigrants arriving in San Francisco, they received preferential treatment. Officials processed their papers aboard the ship so they could disembark and be on their way. This was also true of 1st and 2nd class passengers at Ellis Island.

Unlike Ellis Island, the Angel Island immigration process didn't take hours. It took weeks, months, or sometimes years.

It's important to understand the experience of your immigrant ancestors. I often think of my great grandmother Maria Rosa, who made the 3-week voyage while she was 6 months pregnant. It sounds nauseating! Or my grandfather Pietro, who arrived at age 18 after somehow getting from southern Italy to a port in France. Or my grandfather Adamo, who first arrived in 1914 as a 23-year-old, but had to return to Italy to fight in World War I for the Italian Army.

They all made long, difficult journeys, and most seemed to decide to never speak about it again. Take some time to understand the journey your ancestors made. You know you owe everything to them.

To learn about the Ellis Island immigration process, view the 5 videos at https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/education/eie-series.htm.

To learn about the Angel Island immigration process, see the History Channel page at https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/angel-island-immigration-station.

And speaking of immigration:

• Why Did Your Ancestor Leave Home?
• How Did Immigration Laws Guide Your Ancestors?
• Who Was Your First Immigrant Ancestor?

Your Ancestor's Location is Critically Important

Q: What's a top reason why people mistakenly put OUR relatives in THEIR family trees?

A: They're not looking at a map.

The first time I saw this happen, someone put my grandfather in her family tree. She took him and gave him different parents, different siblings, and a different wife. MY grandfather! It's not as if his last name was so uncommon that he must belong in her tree. You can find the name Leone in every part of Italy.

You owe it to your genealogy research to learn about:

• the place where your ancestors lived, and
• what was happening when they lived there.

Take a look at Germany, Poland, and Prussia in the first half of the 20th century. The borders kept moving. Which country was it when your ancestor was born?

Carefully consider the location when reviewing a promising family tree search result.

Research shows that my Italian ancestors barely moved an inch until the 1890s. Remember that woman who stole my grandfather? If she had looked at a map, she would have seen that he was born hours away from his incorrect parents and siblings.

He's not your man, my friend.

Now, I have seen some people from my ancestral hometowns move—to the next town. If a young man met and agreed to marry a young woman from a town or two away, one of them had to move.

It was common for the couple to marry in the bride's town. That's where you should look for the marriage records. But they often lived and raised a family in the groom's town. That's because he was more likely to inherit land and a home.

Check to see if your ancestral town's marriage records include marriage banns. Those are a public notice of the intention to marry. If so, look at the banns in the groom's town. These documents may tell you where the bride comes from, if you don't know. In all the Italian marriage records I've seen, the banns do not have their own index, so you have to page through them. Only the actual marriage records have an index.

There are exceptions to the rule, of course. In 1840 when my 3rd great grandfather married my 3rd great grandmother, he moved to her town. But check the map! His town borders her town. They may have lived a short walk apart.

Don't expect your early ancestors to move hours away for the birth of one baby, then go home for the birth of the next. Keep in mind that transportation at the time may have been a mule and a cart. And great grandpa wasn't getting a corporate job transfer.

How times have changed! My parents are from the Bronx, New York, but my dad was born in Ohio. Their first 2 kids were born in Virginia. Then I was born in New York City but spent no more than 6 months of my life there, and not all at once. My family's many moves would shock and dismay our ancestors.

My ancestors stayed close to home. How close to home? Everyone from my 1st to my 8th great grandparents lived and died in neighboring towns. My roots are all from the "Sannio" area of the Campania region of Italy. Many of my family names are still found in the same towns.

Which of these tools will work best for finding your ancestors on the map?

That brings me to a set of tools I want to share with you. I consult the Cognomix website all the time. I enter an Italian last name in the search box, and I can see every region, province, and town where that name is found. Not only that—it tells how many families with that name you can find in each region, province, and town.

Here are a handful of tools that show last name distribution in different countries:

• Belgium https://familienaam.be
• France http://www.geopatronyme.com
• Germany https://www.sassyjanegenealogy.com/geogen-german-surname-mapping
• Italy https://www.cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cognomi-italiani (the one I use)
• Poland https://mypolishancestors.com/surname-distribution-in-poland
• United Kingdom http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org

If you find a search result that looks promising, look up that person's town on Google Maps or whatever you use. Is the town anywhere near the place where your ancestors lived? Was anything happening at that time in history that might have caused your family to move? Was there an earthquake or epidemic?

If your family stayed put for generations, and this search result lived hours away, keep searching. He's not your man.

Why Did Your Ancestor Leave Home?

Someone asked me why our ancestors left Italy when it's so beautiful there. I knew the answer, but I remember when I thought the exact same thing.

Then I read a bit of the country's history. Southern Italians faced overwhelming poverty while those in the north fared much better. The young men from the south could have taken factory jobs in the north. But there was too much competition.

Many made their way to the United States of America after hearing that jobs were plentiful. They were hard jobs in steel mills, railroad yards, and coal mines. But it was steady work and decent pay. My grandfathers seized the opportunity and applied for citizenship as soon as possible.

Being an immigrant is not easy. Why did your ancestors choose to leave?

What was going on in your ancestral homeland when your ancestors emigrated? The FamilySearch website is a great place to begin your search. For instance:

• Germans left their country at many points in their history. The main reasons were poverty and religious persecution.
• Many early English emigrants went to America to improve their business prospects. Some were prisoners, sent to other countries. Some military personnel received land or money to stay in the place where they had served.
• The Irish fled famine and poverty. They were also suffering from religious persecution. Some sought political asylum, and others were prisoners sent to America.
• Italian emigration skyrocketed from 1870 to 1914. Young men sought the steady work they couldn't find at home.

A real-life library, or an online catalog search, can tell you why your ancestors moved. One thing is very clear. There has always been a ton of moving going on.

A table on Wikipedia shows the number of foreign-born people living in the U.S. by decade. Based on each census from 1850–2000, the table breaks down the numbers by country and region. (Note: The table is missing 1930 and 1940, and it ends a full 20 years ago.)

The table shows who was leaving their homeland in large numbers at certain times in history. One or more of these trends may apply to your ancestors. For instance:

• German immigration ranged from a half million and 2.7 million people each census year since 1850. It's never let up. In fact, the largest ethnicity in the USA is German at 14.7%*.
• The British Isles and Ireland ranged from nearly 1 million (1990 and 2000) to 4 million (in 1890) people. The English make up 7.8% of America, and the Irish are 10.6%.
• Italian immigration surged to 484,000 people in 1900, and a high of almost 1.8 million people in 1950. After that, quotas forced some of my relatives to go to Canada. Italians are 5.5% of Americans.
• French immigrants peaked at 153,000 in 1920. Relatively speaking, those are low numbers. In fact, the French comprise only 2.6% of Americans.
• Canada has ranged from almost 150,000 in 1850, to 1.3 million in 1950.
• The former Soviet Union hit its peak of more than 1 million people from 1910–1950.
• The former Czechoslovakia topped out at almost a half million people in 1950.

Some countries are seeing a dramatic rise in emigration:

• Mexico surged from 103,000 in 1950 to 9 million in 2000, with a big increase starting in 1980. Mexicans are 10.9% of Americans. That's now the 3rd highest percentage of Americans. First are Germans and second are non-Hispanic Blacks or African Americans.
• The Caribbean Islands began their surge in 1970 and reached almost 3 million strong in 2000.
• Chinese immigrants had many bans and restrictions in the 1800s. But they nearly doubled from 530,000 in 1990 to 989,000 in 2000. This ethnicity represents 1.2% of Americans.

Statistics paint a picture of nationalities fleeing oppression.

While I adore Italy, and I feel at home in my ancestral hometowns, I know it is not the Italy my ancestors left behind.

I encourage you to learn a bit of the history of your "old country". You'll discover a new-found appreciation for your immigrant ancestors' sacrifices.

*The percentages of ethnicities in the U.S. comes from a 2019 article on the WorldAtlas website.

And speaking of emigration/immigration:

• How Did Immigration Laws Guide Your Ancestors?
• Grandpa's Journeys Shed Light On My Own
• Celebrating My Peasant Ancestors

6 Ways to Find Your Ancestor's Hometown

The quest for the holy grail: your ancestor's place of birth.

You can't go back beyond your immigrant ancestor until you know where they were born. That town of birth is critical to finding documents.

I'm working on a couple who married in New York City in 1889. He was Giovanni Calleo. His naturalization papers have his exact birth date, but not his hometown. She was Cristina, and New York marriage indexes gave me her maiden name: Mastroianno. But nothing more.

I can't find Giovanni's immigration record. But he arrived in 1881. There's almost no chance his ship manifest will state his hometown. Her 1889 ship manifest has no details beyond her name and age. She arrived two weeks before her marriage. Two weeks! That makes me think they came from the same hometown. Family may have arranged the marriage and shipped her to the U.S.

Their hometown is everything. Your quest is to find your ancestor's hometown.

To go any further back, I need to know where they came from. Here are 6 different avenues to explore.

1. Ship Manifests

My first traveling ancestor was my 2nd great grandfather. He made a few trips in the 1890s.

In 1898 he went back to Italy to bring over his wife and 2 of his children. That 1898 ship manifest has the details I needed.

My great aunt said the family came from Pastene. The 1898 ship manifest lists their town as "S. Angelo." I scoured a map for a while until I figured it out. Pastene is a frazione (a hamlet) of Sant'Angelo a Cupolo. With that information, I was able to learn so much.

A well-timed ship manifest is a great way to find your ancestor's hometown.

2. Naturalization Papers

United States naturalization papers have 3 varieties. A person first filed their Declaration of Intention to become a citizen. This form may include your ancestor's:

• place and date of birth
• the exact date of their arrival
• the name of the ship.

Next came the Petition for Naturalization. This may also include your ancestor's place and date of birth.

A thorough naturalization form can give you a ton of places, dates, names, and facts you need.

Finally there is the actual naturalization. I have this document for Giovanni Calleo, but it confirms only his birth date.

I can't find Giovanni Calleo's declaration and petition. It may take a page-by-page search in the New York City court closest to where he lived.

3. Death Certificate

A close relative provides the facts on a death certificate. But what if they don't know the full names, proper spelling, and places of birth for their ancestors?

If you find a death certificate, keep in mind they may have Anglicized the names. What do you think the names might be in the original language? They may misspell the town of birth, if they include it.

4. Marriage Certificate

It's a bit of a rarity, but a marriage certificate may tell you where your immigrant ancestor was born. My ancestors' New York marriage certificates don't have a town; only a country. My grandparents' Ohio marriage license says she was born in Hornell, New York. But for Grandpa, it says only Italy.

A marriage certificate may be a long shot for finding an international place of birth. But it's a worthwhile search.

5. Find Others with the Name

Sometimes I'll search Ancestry for a last name only to see which towns the name generally comes from.

Searching for the name Mastroianno gives me a list of towns I can check. They include: Caiazzo, Caserta, Villa Santo Croce, Alvignano, Conflenti, Sezze, Benevento.

That's a lot to go on. Almost too much. Since Caiazzo came up a few times, I'll try there first.

I'll search the 1865 and 1869 birth records in these towns for Giovanni and Cristina.

6. Trace their Siblings

It's disappointing not to have found their hometowns yet. I have one ace left up my sleeve, and his name is Pasquale.

In the 1905 New York State census, Cristina's brother Pasquale Mastroianno is living with her. He's a 44-year-old married man who's been in the U.S. for 6 years. Did he plan to return to his wife and kids in Italy once he had enough money? Or was he going to bring them to America?

Pasquale's 1899 arrival should include his hometown. That'll be Cristina's hometown.

Here's what I found:

• An 1861 Italian birth record from the town of Falerna. The baby's parents are much too old to have had Cristina 8 years later. I looked anyway, and there is no record for her in that town.
• A 1900 ship manifest, hometown: Recale. While this is a good fit for Pasquale, I did not find Cristina born in Recale.
• An 1893 ship manifest, hometown: Nocera. There are 4 towns whose name begins with Nocera. I'll have to search all 4.
• An 1891 ship manifest, hometown: Palermo. He's heading to New York. It could be him.
• An 1890 ship manifest, hometown: Nicastro. My list of possible hometowns is getting awfully long.
• A 1902 ship manifest, hometown: Campochiaro. The 1905 census says he'd been in the U.S. for 6 years. This doesn't seem like a good fit.
• A 1905 ship manifest that's the Pasquale from the 1861 Italian birth record. He was going to Pittsburgh.

Lots more ship manifests, city directories, and naturalization indexes didn't fit this Pasquale.

Usually one of the first 3 methods would give me what I need. But this family is a tough one. Since I know Giovanni's birth date and Cristina's birth year, my best hope is that long list of towns.

I'll search for them in the birth records for each town in the list.

That hometown is the holy grail. If I find their birth records, I'll have their parents' names. I can search for their parents' marriages, and so on.

Don't give up on your search. Try every path until one leads you where you want to go.

And now for some déjà vu:

• Where Did Grandpa Come From?
• What to Do When Your Last Name Is So Common
• Walking in Your Ancestors' Footsteps

Who Is This Man Who Isn't My Uncle?

Sometimes a rabbit hole is well worth the tumble.

I let a mistake guide my research this past Sunday. I must have been enjoying myself because I managed to forget it was my wedding anniversary. Again.

Here's what happened. I was randomly choosing people in my family tree and checking if they had good source citations. I want to bring all my source citations up to my new standards. I was working on my 2nd great uncle, Giuseppantonio Iamarino, who has a bunch of U.S. documents.

Then I noticed an error. He had arrived in America in 1903 and I had his 1920 census. But I'd also attached an immigration record from 1920—a few months after the census. That couldn't be him, could it?

I checked the facts on the ship manifest. The name and age were a match, and it mentioned his wife Libera back in his hometown. Aside from the date, the only fact that didn't fit my uncle was his destination: Girard, Ohio. My 2nd great uncle never left New York City.

If the document facts don't fit your person, what do you do?

Who was the Giuseppantonio Iamarino on this ship manifest? Was it a coincidence that Girard, Ohio, is where my great grandfather lived? And where my father was born?

I turned to my collection vital records from Colle Sannita, Italy. I needed to find a Giuseppantonio Iamarino, born around 1876, who married a woman named Libera. There was only one good candidate, and he was not in my family tree.

Giuseppe Antonio Iamarino, born on 10 Jan 1876, was the son of Salvatore Iamarino and Costanza Nigro. Giuseppe's father was 30 years old at the time, so I jumped to the 1846 birth records.

I found Salvatore Iamarino's birth record. When I saw the names of his parents, I found they were already in my tree. His father, Giovannantonio Iamarino, is my 2nd cousin 5 times removed.

Anyone with that name definitely gets a spot in my family tree.

The man from the wrongly attached 1920 ship manifest was my 4th cousin 3 times removed. The ship manifest says Giuseppantonio was going to Girard, Ohio, to join his cousin with the last name Piccirillo. I eventually found out Piccirillo is the last name of Giuseppantonio's mother-in-law.

What else could I find? Which other documents and names could I add to firm up this branch of my family tree? Giuseppantonio's 1876 birth record had 2 big clues for me:

• He married Liberantonia Nigro (the Libera from the ship manifest) on 12 Oct 1899 in Colle Sannita.
• He married Maria Teresa Mutino on 8 August 1935 in Colle Sannita.

I'm very familiar with my Italian document collections. I knew that the 1899 marriage record would not be available. But, since Liberantonio died between 1920 and 1935, I could find her death record. It would tell me her age and her parents' names. Then I could find her birth record and her parents' marriage record.

I could find the 1935 marriage record for Giuseppantonio and Maria Teresa Mutino. That would tell me her parents' names so I could climb her family tree.

And then there were Giuseppantonio's parents, Salvatore and Concetta Nigro. Their marriage would not be in the document collection. But I found Concetta's 1937 death record. That gave me her age and parents' names. I discovered her full name was Maria Concetta Pasqualina Nigro. Her parents weren't in my tree yet, but her grandparents were.

I kept going. I searched for records for Concetta's grandparents, and I started seeing familiar names. Something strange was happening. Concetta (Salvatore Iamarino's wife) and Liberantonia (Giuseppantonio Iamarino's wife) were 1st cousins. Their fathers were brothers.

But wait. There's more! The father of these 2 brothers was Giuseppantonio Nigro. When his 1st wife died, he married Margherita Callara. They were in-laws. Giuseppantonio's daughter-in-law's mother was Margherita. And Margherita's son-in-law's father was Giuseppantonio.

This family tree branch just turned into a pretzel!

Just when I thought I'd make a terrible mistake, I realized what was going on in this family.

My little mission to find the man on a ship manifest added dozens of people to my family tree. They each opened more avenues to explore. Giuseppantonio's (from the ship manifest) 2nd wife had 2 husbands before him. Remember that this pre-1970s Italy. You remarried only after your spouse died.

She buried her 1906 husband and her 1909 husband before marrying Giuseppantonio Iamarino. She and her 2 previous husbands open up many more exploration routes. It's time to get all "Lewis and Clark" on them.

I believe I can take nearly anyone from these old vital records and find them a place in my family tree. I want to keep exploring these new avenues. Which personal milestone or national holiday will I forget this time?

Finding Relatives Who Sailed to South America

There are online tools to help you identify family members who went to Argentina and Brazil. Recently we looked at Brazilian documents with photos of my Italian townspeople. Today we'll look at another resource to find family members who went to Argentina.

CEMLA is the Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (Center for Latin American Migratory Studies). Their website offers a simple search form where you can enter:

• Apellido (last name)
• Nombre (first name)
• A date range, Desde (from) and Hasta (until)

Type in the jumble of letters and numbers you see and click Buscar (search). (Tip: You may only have to enter the jumbled code the first time.)

The database:

• covers more than 75 years of immigration
• has more than 4.4 million names
• includes more than 200 countries.

But their website does not have the ship manifest images for us to see. That's disappointing, yes. But let's see what we can do with the information they do provide.

This simple search form can turn up a list of possible relatives for you.

I searched for immigrants with my maiden name, Iamarino, and got 19 results. All 19 Iamarinos arrived in Argentina between 1896 and 1954.

You can open Google Translator in another browser tab to translate the immigrants' professions. I used it to make sure "desconocido" in the Place of Birth column means unknown. And I found that C or S in the "Estado Civil" column means Married (Casado) or Single (Soltero).

Let's see what we can do with this table of search results.

Click on any column in the search results to sort by that value. I clicked the "Fecha de Arribo" (Arrival Date) column. You can also type a value in the "Filtrar resultados" box to filter your results. I can type the town name of Colle Sannita in the box to filter by my ancestral hometown.

That leaves me with 7 people who came from Grandpa Iamarino's hometown. The first one, Carmine Iamarino, was 29 years old in 1924. I can search for him in the towns' 1895 birth records. These are available on the Antenati website, and I've downloaded them to my computer.

There is a Carmine Iamarino born in 1895 to Pasquale Iamarino and Orsola Marino. Is he in my family tree? I searched my tree for him, and he isn't there. Yet. His parents are in my tree, and his father Pasquale is my 2nd cousin 4 times removed.

That means Carmine, whom I've just learned sailed to Argentina in 1924, is my 3rd cousin 3 times removed. Now I can enter Carmine into my family tree with his 1895 birth record and his 1924 immigration facts. I'll use the CEMLA website as my source and add all the facts I see:

• Carmine was a married man in 1924
• He was a laborer
• He arrived in Argentina on 31 December 1924
• He sailed out of Naples on the ship Belvedere

Let's try another one. Innocenzo Iamarino arrived in Argentina in 1935 at the age of 31. I searched my vital records for Innocenzo Iamarino born in 1904 and found him. He isn't in my family tree yet, either. But his parents are. And he's a closer relative than my first search.

Innocenzo's father, Giuseppantonio Iamarino, is my 2nd great uncle. He's the brother of my great grandfather Francesco. Innocenzo, who I'll be putting into my tree immediately, is my 1st cousin twice removed. (He's Grandpa's 1st cousin.)

Innocenzo's birth record tells me he married Rosa Paolucci in 1925. I searched the CEMLA site to see if she followed her husband to Argentina. It looks like she did not, so Innocenzo probably earned money in South America and returned to his wife in Italy. (Tip: There is no button to start a new search, so refresh the page in your web browser.)

Did Innocenzo sail to Argentina more than once? I removed the Colle Sannita filter from my search. There is another result for an Innocenzo born in 1904. He arrived in Argentina in 1926, married, listing his hometown as Benevento. Benevento is both a city and the name of the province to which Colle Sannita belongs. I'm fairly confident that this is my same 1st cousin twice removed.

The search screen offers many controls to help you find your relatives.

I'm eager to work through every Iamarino in this list. You can't use an asterisk or question mark in your search, but I know the usual misspellings of my maiden name. I search for Jamarino and found 10 more results, one of which lists Colle Sannita as their place of birth.

It's great to have this bit of information to add to the stories of my relatives. If you have family members who traveled to and from another country to work, try the CEMLA website. You, too, may find relatives who sailed to Argentina to support their families.

What Does Your Brick Wall Look Like?

Everyone who dabbles in family tree building has hit one or more brick walls.

After thinking about my own dead ends, I realized brick walls fall into a few main categories. I've named 4 of them below. Each type has several potential brick wall-busting documents. Have you found them all?

Focus on the type of brick wall, then think of all the documents than can break it down.

Brick Wall #1: What Was Her Maiden Name?

Can you imagine if women all around the world kept their maiden name for life? That's what women in Italy do. But I suppose if that were the case, our brick walls would be What Was Her Married Name?

If you have a female with a missing maiden name, and you can't find her death record, do all you can to find these documents:

• A marriage record under her married name.
• The death record for each of her children. One or more may have her maiden name.
• Social Security applications and pension records. I found a mangled version of my 2nd great grandmother's maiden name this way. It pointed me in the right direction.
• Obituaries for close family members. I haven't found an obit for any of my relatives beyond my parents' generation. But you may get lucky.

Brick Wall #2: Who Were Their Parents?

Let's say you've got this relative in the 1900 U.S. Census, but you don't know who their parents were. Maybe it's a woman with no maiden name available. Or a man with such a common name, you can't be sure which man is him.

Be sure to do an exhaustive search for all these documents:

• Their death record. Beware: the person who supplied the information on the death record may not have known the facts you want. (See 27 Key Facts to Extract From a Death Certificate.)
• Draft registration cards or other military records. I found the World War II missing flight record for my uncle who crashed and died. It lists the name and address of the nearest relative of all 10 crew members. (See Was Your Ancestor in the Military? It May Not Matter.)
• Every census record. Their parent may be living with them.
• Passport applications.
• Citizenship papers. Sometimes you'll find a lot of very specific family details on these documents.
• Immigration records. There's definitely a sweet spot for immigration records. If they immigrated earlier than the late 1890s, you may not learn any more than which country they came from.

Brick Wall #3: Where Did They Come From?

Someone asked for my help with this type of brick wall recently. Their ancestor had a clearly made-up name and seemed to drop right out of the sky.

All we could do was search for the following types of records:

• Their immigration record. (He came here too early for details.)
• Citizenship papers.
• A marriage record. This may list only the person's country of origin, but sometimes it includes the town.
• Their death record. If you're lucky, the informant knew the deceased's parents' names.

Just as it takes many bricks to make a wall, it takes many facts and documents to tear down that wall.

Brick Wall #4: Where Did They Go?

This is the type of brick wall on my mind this week. Where did my grandfather's younger brother go? I have nothing but his birth record, so I started thinking about everything else I can search for:

• His marriage record. There isn't one available from his Italian hometown, but he may have married:
  
  • during a year with no marriage records available
  • in another town, or
  • not at all.
• His death record. There is no record of his death in his hometown in the years with available documents.
• An immigration record. My great uncle's name was Noé—that's Noah in English—Leone. There isn't a single record of any kind for any variation of his name anywhere. Only his Italian birth record. That finding rules out all other main genealogy documents for this uncle.
• Military records. I checked to see if my uncle died in Italy in World War I or World War II. He did not. There's a Benevento province website where I can look up all the Italian men with military service—which was all the men. Since Noé isn't listed there, it's very likely he died before he turned 20 years old. Unfortunately, his town's 1910–1915 death records are not available online. Someday I'll return to the Benevento Archives and search the death records in person.

Did my great uncle leave town forever? I don't know what became of him.

This may not be a complete list. But seeing brick walls boiled down to their basic types should help you know what your options are. If you can't retrieve the records you need on your own, consider seeking a professional's help. I hired a pair of researchers in Italy to gather church records from my ancestors' town. I've actually been to that church, but I wasn't able to access their records on my own.

People often comment that "not all genealogy records are online." I wish they were! Even when the world wasn't screeching to a halt, I wasn't able to travel anywhere at any time. I'd like to spend a few days researching in Hornell, New York. And a few days in Girard, Ohio. And months on end in several small towns in Italy. But I don't want my family tree work to wait for future research trips.

When Italian vital records came online 3 years ago, my tree blossomed in countless directions. It's my hope that Italy will digitize their parish records in my lifetime. But if that doesn't happen, I'm satisfied that I've done all I can to break through my brick walls. For now.