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Those yeomen farmers who settled the midwest may be a bit boring, but
they do have the advantage of being fairly easy to locate. Even if you
have to look through an entire county in a census, it is not an impossible
task. It is quite a different story for those who arrived on the peak
of the immigration wave in the 1890s and disappeared into the New York
tenements.
If you find yourself looking for ancestors in New York City at the turn
of the century, it may seem that you start with three strikes against
you: the 1890 federal census was destroyed, there is no index for the
1910 census for New York, and the ships' passenger lists aren't indexed
before 1897. If your ancestor arrived around 1888, the search may seem
hopeless, but there are an incredible number of resources unique to New
York City.
By using several of these resources, you can begin to pinpoint certain
dates and locations. One thing in your favor is so many of the immigrants
were young. Either young people in their twenties came alone, or families
with young children traveled together. Most of them lived well into the
20th century which means there are many possible sources of records.
Reliability of Dates
One fact that must be considered is the inaccuracy of dates on all records.
Information on death records came from a family member who may never have
known the correct date of birth or immigration. Birth dates were simply
not as important to these people, many of whom could not read or do math.
I have often wondered how they remembered their ages — did they try
to mentally add another year or did they remember their birth year? Many
could not have done the subtraction required to arrive at their ages if
they only remembered their birth year. Probably many never knew their
exact year of birth. If it was written down anywhere, it would be in the
family Bible and that may have remained with the parents in the "old
country."
For many of the documents we find, such as census or naturalization applications,
the individual was asked by a clerk the date of birth or arrival in the
U.S. He didn't have an opportunity to look it up or even to think about
it. He probably said "I think it was about 1888" but that went
down in black and white as the actual date. In a census, one member of
the household may have answered the questions and may have been a small
child when they arrived and didn't know the date. You will find many different
dates for the same event in different records.
Don't Overlook Siblings
Families were usually large and it is important to gather information on
all the siblings of the immigrant generation and the first generation born
in the U.S. Your ancestor may not have remembered the year of immigration,
but his brother may have given the exact date on his naturalization papers.
Your great-grandfather may have died in 1920 and you don't know where he
was born. His younger brother may have lived to 1970 and his Social Security
application gives his place of birth. Or his nephew's death certificate
gives the place of birth of his mother, your great-grandfather's sister.
Social Security Death Index
One of the most accessible sources is the Social Security Death Index, which is available both online and in all Family History Centers of the LDS Church. Although Social Security began in 1934, the records were
not computerized until 1962 so you can't expect to find any information
in this database unless the person died after 1961. (However, if he or
she died before that year and you do have the Social Security number,
you can still apply for the original application.) Remember that the index
shows the place where the original card was issued, and that this is not
necessarily the birth place. Once you have obtained a number from the
Index you can request a copy of the Social Security application. The cost
is relatively minimal and you may be able to learn the applicant's address, birthplace
and date, and parents' names. Send your inquiries to:
Freedom of Information Officer
4-H-8 Annex Building
6401 Security Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21235 USA
1900 and 1920 U.S. Census
Another excellent source is the Soundex index for the 1900 and 1920 census.
The index itself gives a lot of information. Each household is indexed
under the name of the head of the household and gives his or her name,
birth date (1900) or age (1920), year of arrival and whether or not naturalized.
The 1920 index also gives the year of naturalization.
The index also gives the names, ages or birth dates and place of birth
of all in the household. The volume, enumeration district, sheet and line
also allows you to go to the actual census which will give you occupation
and the place of birth of the parents. The 1900 census tells how many
children a woman had and how many were still living. Although the index
has a lot of information, it is always worthwhile going to the actual
census because other family members may be living nearby. It also helps
to look at both years so you can compare birth dates and immigration years.
Naturalization
Naturalization papers usually are extremely frustrating to find. A person
could file a declaration of intent in any court he wished and could take
out final papers in a different court. You usually end up writing to many
different courts in the area, waiting weeks and turning up nothing. New
York City is much easier. The Works Projects Administration (WPA) indexed
naturalizations from twelve New York City courts, covering a period from
1792 to 1906. This soundex index is on 294 rolls of films at the Family
History Library (FHL), beginning with 1,419,807. The index cards can
include name, occupation, date of birth, date of arrival, date of naturalization,
address, occupation and witness. Unfortunately, not all cards contain all
this information, but you can learn quite a bit about many of the people
from the cards — either to eliminate them or to decide to look at the
actual records.
Before looking at too many naturalization records at the Family History
Library Catalog, it would be a good idea to study a copy of the "New
York Research Outline" by the Family History Library. There are several
sets of indexes, petitions and declarations for various parts of New York
City. Most of them are contained in the WPA index above so you don't want
to spend time and money for films duplicating your work. Once you have
looked at the index, you may have to write to National Archives (see web
pages below) but many of the records are available on film from the Family
History Library. A collection of 2,167 reels, titled "Naturalization
Records, 1792-1906, Court of Common Pleas, New York County" is on
film. However, this is not just the Court of Common Pleas. After those
records comes the Supreme Court (New York County) 1868, 1896-1906 and
then the Superior Court (1828-1895). There are also records for declarations
of intentions for these courts as well as the U.S. Circuit Court, New
York Southern District for 1845-1911. (All naturalization records after 1906 are at the Immigration and Naturalization
Service in Washington, DC.)
New York City Vital Records
If your ancestor did not survive long in the new world, you still have
an excellent source of information in the index to deaths in New York
City, 1888-1965. The early indices are arranged alphabetically only by
the first letter of the surname, then broken down by month but within
a few years it becomes one alphabetical index by year. The indices include
the name, age, date of death and the certificate number. Once you have
a certificate number, the FHL has filmed the certificates for Manhattan
for 1866-1919. If you have the film number, date and certificate number,
you can order a copy from the FHL and not have to order the entire film.
A copy service is available for any
film or book where you can provide exact reference numbers. The actual
certificate usually gives date of death, location, age, marital status,
place of birth, how long in the U.S., parents' names and birthplace, and
cause of death. There are also marriage records 1866-1937 and an index
to births 1881-1916.
Vital records for all five boroughs of New York City are kept in the
city itself, not at the state level in Albany. They are divided between
two administrative offices as indicated below.
- Older records (births prior to 1909, deaths prior to 1948, and marriages
before 1937) are kept at the following address:
New York City Department of Records and Information Services
Municipal Archives
31 Chambers Street — Room 103
New York, NY 10007 USA
- Later records are kept through the Department of Health:
Bureau of Vital Records
New York City Department of Health
125 Worth Street
New York, NY 10013 USA
Phone: (212) 788-4520
Ships' Passenger Lists
One of the most frustrating searches can be for the proof of the arrival
of the immigrant. Somehow it is nice to know exactly which ship brought
them, where it sailed from and when it actually docked. After 1897 there
is an alphabetical index to 1902 and 1902-1943 has a soundex index. For
earlier dates, if you know the name of the ship, you can limit your search
by using the Morton-Allan Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrival
at the Port of New York, 1890-1930 and at the Ports of Baltimore, Boston,
and Philadelphia, 1904-1926. Without a date (at least a month) or a ship's
name and port of embarkation, it is extremely difficult to find the name
on a manifest. During this time period, the arrivals for a month take
up two or three rolls of microfilm. One year can cover 20 rolls. This
is why it is important to gather information from census, naturalization
and death records to try to narrow down the time period when they probably
arrived.
In a worst case scenario you may find yourself going through reel after
reel of New York arrivals. Depending on the origin of your ancestor, this
might not be as bad as it seems. There were many ships that came from other
regions (such as South America and the Caribbean) that can be ignored if
your ancestors were European. There are also many ships with just a handful
of passengers. The big immigrant ships came from Germany, Great Britain,
Holland, France, Belgium, Italy, and some from Scandinavia. The passenger
lists generally indicate citizenship and usually they are grouped somewhat.
An Austrian may have gone any direction — Germany, Holland, England,
even Italy, but most nationalities used certain ports. If your ancestor
was Irish, you can skip the long lists of passengers from Bremen, Hamburg
and Naples. If you are not looking for an Italian, you can skip pretty
quickly through most ships from Italy although many carried people from
Greece and the Middle East. Scandinavians usually went through Germany
or the British Isles. Germans, Russians and other Eastern Europeans frequently
went from Germany, but also through Holland, France and England. If you
are looking for a German, you can look quickly down the columns and go
past all those from Sweden and Denmark.
Once in a while you will come across a list in alphabetical order. Don't
assume it is in exact order. Scan the entire list anyway. Sometimes a
stray name may be put in next to a traveling companion or there may be
more than one alphabet. If you are looking for a family, it is easy to
spot the families with the surname repeated or, more often, the use of
ditto marks ( " ). Be careful also to determine if the list is in
first name/last name or last name/first name order — or a combination!
For further information see They Came in Ships by John P. Colletta
(Salt Lake City: Ancestry 1993).
Directories and Other Censuses
If you have researched all of the above and still haven't found your
answers, there are more resources, but a bit more difficult to use. There
are city directories for many years including 1860-1925 (except 1919).
These directories are not limited to businesses, but list home addresses
for individuals of all types, including "laborers." It even
lists some relations, such as "Kenny, Anna wid. Thos."
Once you have an address, you can then look for your ancestor in the
state censuses which are not indexed or the 1910 federal census which
is not indexed for New York. The state census was taken every 10 years
ending in 5, as in 1895, 1905, 1915, and 1925. The Family History Library
has street indexes for the 1905, 1915 and 1925 Manhattan census. With
the street address you use the index to find what assembly district and
election district covered that area. The 1925 census reports when and
where the person was naturalized.
There was also a police census taken in 1890 which lists every individual
at each address. There is no name index, but there is a map index which
shows assembly and election districts. The election districts cover fairly
small areas so if you have an address it is possible to find the person
on the census. The difficulty is that many immigrants seemed to move frequently.
Map Programs
A map program, either on CD-ROM or on-line, can be very helpful in doing
this type of research. If you are not familiar with New York streets and
addresses, the street and house numbers can have little meaning. By being
able to plot the various addresses on a map you can see if a person always
stayed in one neighborhood or if two people who may be related are living
around the corner from each other.
It is especially helpful if the program can pinpoint a block for a certain
address. For example, 1951 2nd Avenue is just a couple of blocks from
200 E. 102nd St. but quite a distance (about 27 blocks) from 2490 2nd
Avenue. Pinpointing the block also helps to locate the assembly and election
districts for the state and police census, especially on the long north-south
streets.
There are many, many more records for New York City research, many related
to specific ethnic groups or religions. These are just the highlights
of some of the larger collections to give you an idea that tracking immigrants
is not as impossible as it might appear. While all the films can be ordered
from the Family History Library in Salt Lake
City, many of the larger Family History Centers have these important indexes
on permanent loan.
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