Sooner or later, you’ll get “back to the boat”—that is, you’ll find your original immigrant in a certain family line. The first immigrant in your family might have arrived just a generation ago or centuries ago. Either way, that doesn’t have to mean your genealogy is “done.” When you find that first immigrant, finding the boat can be just as important. Although finding where he or she boarded won’t tell you a birthplace, it is good information to have.

So where do you look? Many sites have ships’ passenger lists and manifests. For general lists of such sites, you can check out Cyndi’s List at www.cyndislist.com/ships. If you are fairly certain your ancestor entered the United States through New York during the right time period, search the Ellis Island site profiled in the last chapter.

For other centuries and other countries, you can investigate the Immigrant Ships Transcribers’ Guild at www.immigrantships.net. Another such site is The Ships List (www.theshipslist.com), which not only has passenger lists, but also newspaper reports, shipwreck information, and information on shipping lines.

For U.S. immigration, you can search the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm catalog for immigration records for arrivals to the United States from foreign ports between approximately 1820 and 1982. See www.archives.gov/research/immigration/#where for details on how to order microfilms that match. Also, look at naturalization records at the NARA page (www.archives.gov/research/naturalization), state archives, and county and state courts. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services have a good genealogy page at www.uscis.gov/historyandgenealogy.

Following the Past

Of course, the next step is to start researching in “the old country,” outside the United States, Canada, or whatever country where you live. Can you do this online? Well, that depends on the country. Some countries have online records for you to search, especially those countries where English is spoken. But some countries only have sites with the most general information, and you’ll be lucky to find the address of the civil records offices. You’ll probably wind up doing a combination of online and postal mail research and possibly some in-person research, too.

One thing that can help is the book International Vital Records Handbook: Births, Marriages, and Deaths by Thomas Jay Kemp (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2013). At this writing, the fifth edition is the latest. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, from Alabama to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Kemp has gathered not only the right offices and phone numbers and address, but if a website or fax exists, he has included that, too. Most important, Kemp has done the research for what records are released for genealogy research for each entry and included the proper form ready to be photocopied and mailed in. If your local library does not have this important resource, you can order it from Genealogical Publishing Company at www.genealogical.com.

Beyond the Boat

Once you have found the boat and the port of departure, you can really begin to search the life of your immigrant ancestor. In many of the online sites covered in previous chapters, you can find links to sites for genealogy beyond the United States. For online links, I recommend starting at Cyndi’s List at www.cyndislist.com and RootsWeb at www.rootsweb.org. Other good places to look are discussed in the following sections.

National Archives

A country’s national archives might have a webpage describing genealogy how-to’s for that country. For example, I recently searched for “Poland National Archives” in Google. Quickly, I found the English version of the archives’ website: www.archiwa.gov.pl/en/state-archives.html. This site has pages that explain how to start a genealogy search, what records you can ask for, and where to look for records.

Genealogical Societies

Search in any major search site (Yahoo!, Google, Bing, and so on) for the country of origin for your immigrant and “genealogy.” Often, at the top of the list will be a genealogical society devoted to that particular nationality. These organizations can help you learn how to conduct research in those countries. Each place has its own method of recording vital statistics, history, and other information.

WorldGenWeb

The WorldGenWeb Project was created in 1996 by Dale Schneider to help folks researching in countries around the world. The goal is to have every country in the world represented by a website and hosted by researchers who either live in that country or are familiar with that country’s resources. The site is www.worldgenweb.org, shown in Figure 15-1.

FIGURE 15-1. WorldGenWeb is an eclectic collection of worldwide genealogy sites.

When the WorldGenWeb Project began, volunteers were recruited to host country websites. By coordinating with the USGenWeb Project, soon the major countries in the world had websites. Throughout the next year, WorldGenWeb continued to grow. In 1997, the WorldGenWeb Project moved to RootsWeb. The support of the RootsWeb staff helped WorldGenWeb expand to its present size. Divided into 11 regions (Africa, Asia, British Isles, Central Europe, Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, Middle East, North America, Pacific, and South America), WorldGenWeb provides links to local sites with local resource addresses of county/country public records offices, cemetery locations, maps, library addresses, archive addresses, association addresses (including Family History Centers or other genealogical or historical societies), and some history and culture of the region. Other resources may include query pages or message boards, mailing lists, historical data (including census records), cemetery records, biographies, bibliographies, and family/surname registration websites.

Between RootsWeb and WorldGenWeb, you should be able to find something about the country you need to search.

Translate a Site

Don’t be frustrated if you find a country’s archive but can’t find an English button. You can translate a page at most of the major search sites.

One way is “Translate A Page” using Bing Translator at www.microsofttranslator.com. Paste the original text in the text box. The site’s software detects the original language, and then you choose what language to translate it to.

Google Translate at www.translate.google.com, Google’s free online language translation service, instantly translates text and webpages. Simply input the uniform resource locator (URL) of the site you wish to translate, and Google Translate handles it. It also is built into the Chrome browser. When you open a page in another language in Chrome, a bar at the top will offer to translate it for you.

Several other browsers have add-ons that translate pages on the fly for you. Check your browser’s help file.

Country-Specific Sites

In addition to the places mentioned so far, there are many good starting places for an international search. Some are general and provide all sorts of international research, and some are for specific locations. The following sections describe some to get you started.

Asian Genealogical Sites

    • The Singapore Genealogy Forum (http://www.genforum.genealogy.com/singapore) allows those of all races to look for their relatives and ancestors who might have lived in Singapore.

    • The AsianGenWeb (http://www.worldgenweb.org/index.php/asiagenweb) is part of WorldGenWeb and has some sites, but needs hosts for many more.

    • Origin of Chinese Surnames (http://www.yutopian.com/names) is a fascinating page with the most common Chinese surnames and their history.

European Genealogical Sites

There are many sites where you can research your European roots. I recommend you start with the following:

    • Europe Genealogy Links is a list of sites sorted by country and resource at http://www.genealogylinks.net/europe/index.html. You will find links to cemeteries, censuses, GenWeb pages, and personal sites.

    • Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg): Digital Resources Netherlands and Belgium (http://www.geneaknowhow.net/digi/resources.html) is one place you can find resources from the Netherlands and Belgium, including more than 350 Internet links to online resources (with more than 150 passenger lists), nearly 900 online resources on Dutch and Belgian bulletin board systems, and hundreds of digital resources.

    • Family Explorer Benelux (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jberteloot) is a list of links to databases, mailing lists, and other Benelux resources.

    • The Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS) (http://www.feefhs.org) was organized in 1992 to foster family research in Eastern and Central Europe without any ethnic, religious, or social distinctions. You’ll find a forum for individuals and organizations focused on either a single country or a group of people to exchange information and be updated on developments in the field. While it primarily serves the interests of North Americans in tracing their lineages back to a European homeland, it welcomes members from all countries. The site has historical maps, information on conferences and workshops, information on organizing tours to Europe for hands-on research, and a quarterly e-mail newsletter.

    • The Ukrainian Roots Genealogy Webring can be found at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukrgs/ukrroots.html. The webring is community of webpages on Ukrainian genealogy research. The pages are personal home pages of people who want to share information that they have accumulated on their family history and Ukrainian heritage. You’ll also find pointers to sources of information that would be of help to others doing research into their Ukrainian family history.

    • Eastern Slovakia, Slovak, and Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogy Research (http://www.iarelative.com/slovakia.htm) has articles, links, message boards, and transcribed records.

France

Interest in French genealogy online is growing rapidly. This short list will get you started:

    • Besides the usual sites, such as Cyndi’s List and WorldGenWeb, check out FrancoGene at http://www.francogene.com. At FrancoGene, you’ll find Quebec’s pioneers and resources in Europe; genealogy sites in former French colonies around the world, such as Quebec and Haiti; and links to genealogy societies and institutions.

    • Much like Ancestry.com in the United States, Genealogy.tm.fr (http://www.genealogy.tm.fr) is a for-fee site that allows you to search documents and records in French. This was started in 1994, when Laurent Fondant began his own genealogy and found a need to transcribe, index, and scan documents. You pay a subscription for a period to access the documents you find in searching indexes.

    • You can search for the geographic distribution of your surname in France (based on censuses from 1891 to 1990) at http://www.geopatronyme.com.

    • Nomina (http://www.culture.fr/genealogie) is a meta-search of 13 million names in genealogy databases (GEDCOMs), marriages records, and military records. You can search them all at once, or narrow it down to one of four categories.

    • Genealogie.com is much like Genealogy.com in the United States (http://www.genealogie.com). People upload their data for searching and exchanging information.

Germany

The Germans keep wonderful records, but wars and other disasters sometimes left holes in the lexicon. Still, using these sites may be helpful:

    • Genealogy.net (http://www.genealogienetz.de/genealogy.html) is a treasure trove of information. From the home page, you can find the monthly newsletter in German, information on genealogical research in local regions, links to 35 different German genealogical societies, 60 mailing lists, a FAQ on German genealogy, a GEDCOM database, a gazetteer, a list of heritage books, and much more. Most of it is in German, so remember the translation sites mentioned earlier! You can search many of these databases with just one query in the meta-search engine.

    • GermanRoots (http://www.germanroots.com) offers tips, links, and research hints. It has lists such as “The Best German Resources,” “The Best General Resources” “History, Language, and Culture,” and a basic guide for research in German genealogy by Joe Beine.

    • The New England Historic Genealogical Society has a good history of the Hessian soldiers who fought and sometimes stayed in the Americas at http://www.americanancestors.org/hessian-descendants/.

    • The telephone book for Germany can be found at http://www.dastelefonbuch.de.

    • Kartenmeister is a free online gazetteer of German place names at http://www.kartenmeister.com/.

Italy

Italians love genealogy! Again, this is a short list to get you started:

    • The Italian Genealogy Homepage (http://www.italgen.com) is the leading resource for those who research Italian genealogy. This page includes links to how-to articles, discussion groups, and history.

    • Visit D’addezio, or The Italian Heritage and Genealogy page, at http://www.daddezio.com. It has links to atlases, cemeteries, genealogy articles, genealogy newsletters, genealogy software reviews, genealogy supplies, helpful organizations, history and culture resources, information on coats of arms, local (Italian) societies, maps, military records, passenger lists, research services, surname studies, vital records, and more.

    • The Italy World Club has a page with links to archives in Italy by region at http://www.italyworldclub.com/genealogy.

Spain

The Spanish Empire in the New World, as well as in Europe, left many records that family historians can use. Here are some examples:

    • The place to start is the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research at http://www.shhar.net. This organization is nonprofit and all-volunteer, and is dedicated to family history. Besides good pointers for beginners and a message board, this is the only site I’ve seen with information on African-Hispanic families. The books and journals are worthwhile too. Don’t miss the monthly online magazine at http://www.shhar.net/DVD.pdf.

    • Spain Genealogy Links (http://www.genealogylinks.net/europe/spain/) has tips, data, and links about Spain and more.

    • A site called EuroDocs from Brigham Young University has a page on Spanish history at http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_Spain:_Primary_Documents. This has transcribed Spanish documents ranging from the Visigothic Code to wills of individuals.

    • A list of mailing addresses for archives and libraries in Spain is on the Genealogy Forum at http://www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/gfaol/resource/Hispanic/SpainNA.htm.

Portugal

Portuguese ancestry is almost as widespread as Spanish. However, online resources are not as prevalent.

    • Doug da Rocha Holmes’ page at http://www.dholmes.com/rocha1.html, called Portuguese Genealogy Home Page, is dedicated to Portuguese genealogy. The site proclaims, “This website was created with the Portuguese genealogist in mind. It is for anyone and everyone whose passion has become the search for their Portuguese ancestry no matter where they came from in the former Portuguese territories. Many projects are underway which will be of great interest to anyone concerned with this field of study. Check back from time to time to see the new developments.”

    • LusaWeb is a site dedicated to Portuguese culture, ancestry, and more at http://www.lusaweb.com. This is an organization with dues, like many genealogy societies. It is a place to celebrate common heritage, learn about Portuguese history and traditions, and share the memory of our Portuguese ancestors.

    • The Portuguese-American Historical & Research Foundation has a page for genealogy questions and answers at http://www.portuguesefoundation.org/.

    • The National Library of Portugal is online at http://www.bnportugal.pt, in Portuguese, of course. Remember to use the translation tools mentioned previously!

Scandinavia

Census records of Norway are being transcribed and posted by volunteers at these pages, which also have good information on research in Norway:

    • The Digital Archives is a public service from the National Archives of Norway. Here, you can search transcribed source material for free at http://www.arkivverket.no/Digitalarkivet. Click the English button at the bottom to read it in English, or use Chrome to browse there.

    • Norwegian Research Sources (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wgnorway/NorLinks3.htm) is an excellent starting place. It has links to articles on the Ancestors from Norway site and “Basics of Norwegian Research,” among other things.

    • Ancestors from Norway (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~norway) was created in 1996 to document and inform Norwegian ancestry. It now has excellent articles on research, links to more than 100 sites with information and records, and even recipes!

    • The Norwegian Emigration and Genealogy Center offers information in Norwegian for descendants at http://www.emigrationcenter.com.

    • Martin’s Norwegian Genealogy Dictionary (http://www.martinroe.com/eidhalist.htm) can help you decipher words for relationships, occupations, and so on.

    • ProGenealogists has a page for most European countries, including one for Denmark at http://www.progenealogists.com/denmark.

United Kingdom

Genealogy is as popular in the United Kingdom as it is in the United States. Here are some good starting places for online information:

    • The United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland Genealogy site (http://www.genuki.org.uk) is the best starting point. This site has transcribed data, such as parish records, plus links to individuals’ pages where genealogy research (secondary material) is posted. Look at the index page (http://www.genuki.co.uk/contents) for specific counties, surnames, and so forth.

    • The Free BMD (Free Birth, Marriage, and Death Records) Project (http://www.freebmd.org.uk) provides free Internet access to the Civil Registration Index information for England and Wales from 1837. The transcriptions are ongoing, and the updates are posted once or twice a month. You can volunteer to help!

    • The National Archives of Ireland has a genealogy how-to page at http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/introduction-to-genealogy. From the site, you can search the indexes of 1901 or 1911 census returns; 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s Primary Valuation (also known as Griffith’s Valuation); and 1820s or 1830s Tithe Applotment Books. There are also some marriage records, although a certain number of records were destroyed in “The Troubles.”

    • The UK National Digital Archive of Datasets (http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk) has archived digital data from UK government departments and agencies. The site provides open access to the catalogs of all of its holdings, as well as free access to certain datasets, when you register online.

    • The National Archives of Scotland (http://www.nas.gov.uk) has records from the fifteenth century. The family history page at http://www.nas.gov.uk/familyHistory has good how-to information. You can download PDF files of fact sheets on adoption, deeds, wills, and other topics.

Australia and New Zealand

Australia is rich with genealogy websites. Start with Cyndi’s List at www.cyndislist.com/austnz.htm. Other sites include:

    • The Society of Australian Genealogists (http://www.sag.org.au) offers materials, meetings, and special interest groups. The library catalog is online as well. This group has been helping people with Australian genealogy since 1932.

    • The Dead Persons Society is a genealogy group with several branches. Each site has guides to searching Australian provinces; databases of cemeteries, census, and other records; and general articles on Australian genealogy. A full list of member webpages is at http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/dps-socs.htm.

    • Convicts to Australia, a guide to researching ancestry during the time when Australia was used as a large prison, can be found at http://www.convictcentral.com. The site has some how-to guides, many census and ships’ passenger lists, and more. However, the site cannot handle individual questions or requests for research help.

    • The National Archives of Australia (http://www.naa.gov.au) has an entire section on family history and what records to look for.

Africa

    • South African Genealogy (http://www.sagenealogy.co.za) is dedicated to helping folks find South African ancestors. “Here you will find lists of passengers arriving or departing the port of Cape Town mostly during the 1800s, books and CDs of colonial records and local history, links to specialist South African and International genealogical websites and more … all aimed at making your South African Family History research a little easier,” the site says.

    • Conrod Mercer’s page (http://home.global.co.za/~mercon) is a personal collection of tips on doing South African (white) genealogy.

    • The African Atlantic Genealogical Society (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gfli/africanatllantic.html) has newsletters, queries, and census data to help you get started.

    • You may want to check out Cyndi’s List (search for the African nation of interest) and WorldGenWeb first.

North America

The following sites are good places to start to search for information on ancestors from Canada and Mexico.

Canada

Canadian history is as long and varied as U.S. history. Here are some good starting places:

    • Canadian Genealogy and History Links (CGHL) (http://www.islandnet.com/~cghl) lists online sites for vital records, genealogies, and general history, sorted by province. The CGHL search engine will look for your search term in the descriptions or titles of pages listed on the site.

    • Immigrants to Canada (http://jubilation.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/) offers information extracted from various government records, as well as from shipping records. You can read and search such documents as ships’ lists, immigration reports, and first-person accounts. It also has links to other genealogy sites. It is from the University of Waterloo.

    • The Canadian Genealogy Centre (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/) is a page from the National Archives and Library of Canada. You can read a PDF file of the free booklet, “Tracing Your Ancestors in Canada,” which describes the major genealogical sources available at the National Archives and other Canadian repositories. You may also want to see the main page, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/, which combines the Archives and Library of Canada sites.

Mexico

Mexican records are fairly detailed when it comes to church matters (births, baptisms, marriages, burials, and so on). However, some states in Mexico have less information on civil matters.

    • Archivo General de la Nation (http://www.agn.gob.mx) is the National Archives of Mexico site. It’s as rich and deep as the NARA site in the United States. Note that the site is in Spanish.

    • Archivo Historico de Arzobispo (http://www.arquidiocesismexico.org.mx/) has the archives of the Archbishop of Mexico, a treasure trove of church records. This site is also in Spanish and has a corresponding Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archivo-Historico-del-Arzobispado-de-Mexico/204431596423.

    • The Texas General Land Office has a page at http://www.glo.texas.gov/ for their archives. This state office has records dating back to Spanish times. The page tells you how to write for these records, including the proper addresses and what is available. It also has a searchable catalog of historic maps of the region.

    • The Genealogy of Mexico (http://garyfelix.tripod.com/index63.htm) is one genealogist’s compilation of starting places. He covers the conquistadores, coats of arms, a DNA surname project, and more.

    • The Hispanic Genealogical Society of New York (http://www.hispanicgenealogy.com) includes Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other North American Hispanic genealogy. You can learn about their regular meetings and publications, as well as find links to resources.

A Success Story: German Ancestry Discovered

Denzil J. Klippel had quite a bit of success in his international genealogy search, but it didn’t happen overnight. Denzil started with what he knew, researched back to the boat, and finally found his family’s village of origin. How he did this is fascinating.

Denzil only knew his parents, his grandmother on his mother’s side, and her brother and sister. “In the beginning, I didn’t take advantage of the resources on the [Internet] like DearMYRTLE and so forth, and ask questions. But I soon learned everyone in the online genealogy community is willing to help answer questions. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel—just ask if anyone has done this or that,” Denzil says. So he did eventually ask DearMYRTLE, who pointed him to research at a local Family History Center (FHC). Denzil visited a local FHC in New York City.

There he found his grandmother’s family, but not his grandmother, on one of the microfilms. Requesting the name and address of the submitter, he contacted him with a query, including his e-mail address. Soon, another researcher contacted him by e-mail, and everything began to fall together. Denzil sent for his father’s death certificate (New York) and found the father’s place and date of birth (California). Then he found his grandfather’s place of birth (upstate New York), as well as his father’s mother’s maiden name (Settle) and place of birth (California). He was able to order some of these records online through various vital records sites maintained by these states.

“After going back to my great-grandfather and finding he came from Germany, I hit a brick wall. Not knowing what to do, I went to one of the search engines—Yahoo!—and put in the name Klippel. It gave me 6,000 places where the name appeared on the [Internet], most of them regarding an illness discovered by a Klippel. I captured all of the Klippel e-mail addresses and sent them a message saying I was researching the Klippel family name and, if they were interested in working with me, perhaps we could find some common ancestors or at least discover where the Klippels originated.”

Denzil says he does not recommend this approach, however. “This shotgun approach never works,” he said. What did work, though, was searching for the surname on Google and looking for the genealogy sites. After e-mailing people with Klippel genealogy sites, as opposed to every Klippel he could find online, Denzil heard from people who had been searching the line. Several were cousins he didn’t know he had, and since that time, he now calls all Klippels he comes in contact with “cousin.” “One of these cousins had the name of the town in Germany where my Klippel line came from (Ober-Hilbersheim). I found this village had a website and sent a letter to the mayor. He responded via e-mail and said he knew of my line and told me there were still Klippels living in the village,” Denzil said. “In the meantime, other Klippels in Europe contacted me, and before I knew it, I was planning a trip to visit some of them and Ober-Hilbersheim. When they heard I was going to visit, they all said I had to stay with them. I bought my airline tickets online via Priceline.com and my train pass online.”

Now Denzil was really into the in-person, offline mode! Through electronic and regular mail, he made appointments at all the archives he planned to visit in Germany. When he arrived, they were ready for him and, in most cases, they’d already done all the lookups. As Denzil gathered the research material, he mailed it home to himself. This was important insurance against losing or misplacing any of the papers during his sojourn. “My trip started in Ober-Hilbersheim, and I stayed with the mayor. He took me to all the archives and helped me get all the Klippel family history back to 1550! My distant cousins in the village welcomed me with open arms. I then went to the Netherlands and stayed with the Klippels there, and they took me to the Island of Tholen, where the first Klippel came from in the 1400s. Then on to Hamburg to visit Helmut Klippel and the archive there,” Denzil said.

“And last, but not least, on to Sweden to stay with Alf Klippel, who had given me a wealth of information about the origins of the Klippel name via e-mail and did most of the translating of the old German documents I had been receiving over the [Internet].” It took some footwork and perseverance, but after seven years, Denzil feels he accomplished a lot in his international search, and the online resources made it possible.

Wrapping Up

    • Once you find your immigrant ancestor, you can use archives and ships’ passenger lists to identify the home town.

    • Many national archives have webpages describing research techniques for that country.

    • At FamilySearch, you can download and print research guides for immigrant origins and for specific countries, as well as word lists of genealogical terms in non-English languages.

    • You can find specific sites on genealogy for many nationalities.

    • Translating pages are found at most web search sites.