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January 25, 2001
See Rhonda's Previous
Columns
Working with Immigrants
Q:
I am looking for a good place to start my search for my relatives who immigrated to the USA through Ellis island and Philadelphia. I know my blood lines point to Ireland, Germany, and Hungary. -- Chris
A: It is always tempting when working with an immigrant ancestor to
jump to the passenger lists and hope to find them. While the passenger
lists are a valuable resource, especially after the 1880s, you will want
to make sure that you don't overlook any of the other records your
ancestor may have created after immigrating and throughout the remainder
of their life.
If your ancestors arrived prior to 1920, then you will want to make
sure and look for them in the census records (also the 1910 and 1900
if applicable). This will help you to know if they have been
naturalized as well as giving you the year they immigrated. You will
also want to make sure to get death records and vital records on any
children they had after immigrating. If you have found them in the
1900, 1910 or 1920 census, and they say they have been naturalized, you
will want to get their naturalization papers.
Once you have done all this, you can then turn your attention to the
passenger lists. The ports that you mentioned, Ellis Island and
Philadelphia have indexes to many of their passenger lists. If your
ancestors immigrated after about 1905 then the passenger lists will
tell you the town of birth for your ancestors, as well as whom they
were meeting there and who paid for their passage over.
If your ancestors came before this time, you will want to keep in
mind that if they did come through New York, it was not through Ellis
Island, but through Castle Garden that they would have arrived. Also
not all of the records for New York's passenger lists of this time
period have been indexed. There is a large gap from about 1845 to
1897 that have not been indexed. If you have all the naturalization
records then it is very possible that an index would not be necessary,
you may know the very name of the ship and the date of arrival for
your ancestor.
Learning About Land Records
Q:
Are land records available on film like the census? I guess what I'm asking is for a primer on where I need to start looking to review these types of records. -- Bill
A:
Land records generally have two types of indexes. The grantor
index is an index to those who are selling the land and the
grantee index is an index to those who are buying the land. This
is your first stop when beginning to work with land records. Many
of these are on microfilm and can be accessed through your local
Family History Center.
Once you read through the indexes and write down the names, dates, volume numbers and pages for those individuals that you suspect as your own, you will need to turn your attention to the individual volumes to begin reading through the individual land records.
Land records are generally recorded at the county level. So when visiting your Family History Center and searching the catalog for the land records, you would look under the state, then county for the heading Land Records.
Release
of Dower
Q:
Please explain more about release of dower and where those documents can be
found? -- Mary
A:
The release of dower is a part of a land record in which the owner of the land,
usually the husband, was selling the land to someone else. The release of dower
was the wife's signing away her claim to the one-third right she had in the
land.
Usually a land record has the main part of the land record, which includes the names of the grantor and grantee, the amount of money that is changing hands, and the description of the land. Below this you will find the signature of the grantors of the land and also the signatures of the witnesses. Usually below this, and written by the county clerk is the part about the release of dower.
If you have not done so already, you will want to go through the indexes for the land records looking for what land is listed for the father and each of the children in the family. You will want to plot it out and compare the land descriptions and see who is buying and who is selling. If you have found all the land records then the total amount of land purchases should equal the total amount of land sold. And keep in mind that the land may have been sold by an administrator or executor of a deceased individual.
Arriving in Albany
Q:
Could you tell me, where I would locate Ship records (1847-1865) for the Port
of Albany, New York. I believe my great great grandmother landed in Albany on
route from Ireland. -- Edward
A:
While it is true that people accessed Albany by boat, it was more likely to
be by packet boats. These boats did carry freight, passengers and mail. They
traveled an established route and often times bought and sold goods at each
port that they stopped at. However, these were not large passenger ships that
had traversed the Atlantic, as the river used to access Albany was not big enough.
So, it is probable that your great great grandmother arrived in
New York City first and then traveled on to Albany.
You have a large time period in question about her arrival. If you haven't
done so already, you will want to search the census records and see if you can
narrow down to exactly when she arrived in the United States.
Unfortunately the time period in question is part of the fifty-year
gap in indexing for the New York Passenger Lists. New York's
passenger lists were indexed up to 1846 and then not again until
1897. So it becomes crucial to narrow down the exact arrival
date. The first stop on this is the later census records as they
have columns for year of immigration. This would take you
from an approximate 20-year gap down to one year. In these
records, that it still too much of an unknown.
If you are searching the passenger lists to try to pin point where
in Ireland your great great grandmother came from, you are
possibly going to be disappointed. Prior to about 1898, the
passenger lists generally include only the name, age, occupation
and country of origin.
Rhonda R. McClure is a professional genealogist specializing in celebrity trees
and computerized genealogy. She has been involved in online genealogy for fifteen
years. She is the author of the award-winning The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, now in its second edition.
She is the author of four how-to guides on Family
Tree Maker. In late 2001, she wrote The
Genealogist's Computer Companion. She is a contributing editor to Biography
Magazine with her "Celebrity Roots" column and a contributing writer
to The History Channel Magazine. Her latest book is Finding
Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors. She may be contacted at rhondagen@thegenealogist.com.
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