Finding Family - Immigration Records

Most of us in the United States hail from immigrants. They may be recent immigrants or those who came over a long time ago. While my father’s maternal grandmother claimed that her people were one of the first inhabitants of the country, they still came from Europe. There are very few people, however, who do not have relatives in their past who came over in more recent times. Through my searches in family history and my family knowledge, I knew that a great deal of my antecedents came to the United States during the late 19th century.

Ellis Island is where the immigrants were processed. When you go online to look up relatives, you can find the names of the ships that they arrived in during the early part of the last century. Although my search for my mother’s family was limited to the arrival of both sets of great-grandparents during the turn of the century through Ellis Island, I was able to find the name of the boat and the information on my grandfather’s processing from the records online. I was even able to get a copy of this information to give to my mother.

The information told of the town where he came from in Sicily and when he arrived in the United States. Many Ellis Island records were lost or destroyed, by my great-grandfather’s records on my mother’s side are still there.

Finding information about immigration status is similar to finding information about veteran status. You can locate this information online easily enough. It is not difficult to find it as long as you know the name of the parties you are seeking and their approximate arrival into the country. Many online sites that help you find your family history have this information. They usually charge an additional fee for copies, but it is nominal. It was well worth the money to give my mother the picture of the ship and information as to when my great-grandfather arrived in the United States. He came as an adult and was from Palermo, as expected.