Search for the entire family As discussed in previous lessons, part of an immigrant's identification is knowing who else was in the family. This is reason enough to glean every family member from the records in the new country, but there is an additional reason. Sometimes in your research, you will not find a record of the home town connected to your specific immigrant. However, by knowing who the family members are, and seeking them in the same records, you might find a place name associated with a brother, sister, father, mother, cousin, or other relative. For example, a nephew who came to America to join his uncle, your ancestor, likely naturalized at a later date, when more information may have been required on the naturalization papers. Search broad time periods In our rush to find information about our immigrant, we may not search a broad enough range in the records. This is a particular problem with passenger lists. We may rely on the immigration date given in the 1900 census, or on a naturalization record, and limit our search of passenger lists to that specific year. However, our ancestors may have forgotten the exact year of arrival, or someone else may have given the information on the census. Be sure to search several years on either side of a recorded event.