 This is session number three of the 2019 Virtual Genealogy Fair. The lecture is for the beginner and experienced skill levels. It is entitled, Immigration Records, More Than Just Ship Passenger Arrival Lists, by presenter Elizabeth Burns. This presentation will discuss historic immigration laws and the resulting immigration records available online and through the National Archives. Ms. Burns is an archivist at the National Archives at Kansas City and NARA's subject matter expert for immigration records. And I am now turning over the broadcast to Elizabeth Burns. We're going to discuss how immigration laws have changed over time and the impact this had on the records that exist today. Look at the different types of records available through the National Archives and address how you can get started with researching your immigrant ancestors. Next slide, slide number five. The National Archives holds records created by the federal government in the course of its daily work, so this presentation will focus on these federally created materials. Keep in mind there may be resources available through state archives, local historical societies, et cetera, that could prove useful to your searches, especially if the events of interest occurred prior to the formation of the United States. Next slide, slide number six. Now slide number seven. Our discussion of immigrant laws starts in the 1789 to 1819 timeframe when documentation varied significantly because there was not a single entity creating and maintaining records of immigrants. The customs bureau oversaw ports starting in 1789, but with limited exceptions such as New Orleans and Philadelphia, which consistently recorded arrivals for spans of multiple years, it's difficult to find documentation of immigrants to the U.S. Next slide, slide number eight. The Steerage Act of 1819 changes this. Until January 1820, the U.S. government did not require passenger lists, but the New Steerage Act required the master of a ship to provide a manifest of passengers boarded at foreign ports, and it required each vessel to carry a specific quantity of provisions for each passenger with an entitlement to compensation should supplies prove deficient. Next slide, slide number nine. The Immigration Act of 1891 introduced further documentation as it required that information be collected about immigrants entering the U.S. overland from Canada and Mexico. It's interesting to note that approximately 40% of the foreign passengers arriving in Canada were actually bound for the U.S., so the creation of border crossing records began capturing a large pool of immigrants that likely would not have shown up on previous arrival documents. The act also created a superintendent of immigration who oversaw immigrant inspectors at ports of entry, and barred polygamous persons convicted of crimes of moral turpitude and those suffering from diseases, creating a provision for medical examination. Next slide, slide number 10. The Immigration Act of 1921 and 1924 add another layer of documentation for individuals entering the U.S. as they imposed a national origins quota, which limited the number of visas issued to individuals from different countries by the State Department each year. Only immigrants with valid visas were permitted entry. Next slide, slide number 11. This graphic shows immigration trends to the U.S. 1821 to 1995. You can see how the Immigration Act from the 1920s dramatically shaped the quantity and geographic origin of immigrants to the U.S. throughout the mid-1900s. The laws I introduced are only a small handful of the multitude of immigration regulations and statutes that have existed in the U.S., but you will see as we continue how even these few laws shaped the records available for genealogists today. It's important to consider the laws that may have been in place at the time your immigrant ancestor entered and resided within the U.S. as there is often a direct correlation to what you may or may not find in your research. Next slide, slide number 12. Now slide number 13. Passenger arrival lists are a good place to start our conversation about immigrant records. The forms have changed over time, and these changes often mean that there may be unfamiliar notations on the records. I always suggest that researchers should look for the instructions to the collector that are often found among the forms for a given arrival. These can be a valuable tool for understanding notes that the collector may have added to entries. Researchers are lucky because many of the arrival records have been digitized and are available online through the National Archives catalog, ancestry.com, or familysearch.org. So digital searching and browsing functions are much more accessible. You can visit NARA's immigration overview webpage to learn more. Next slide, slide number 14. Passenger lists can include a variety of information for the subjects recorded, including name, physical description, age, occupation, place of birth, name and address of closest living relative in the U.S., and so on. Next slide, slide number 15. As you search passenger records, there are several tips to keep in mind. If you're having trouble using name searching, but you have a general idea of when and where someone may have entered the U.S., it can be worthwhile to browse the list. When browsing, it's often beneficial to read the list from back to front because they're normally ordered based on cabin class, first, second, third. Unless you know that your ancestor had the means to pay for first class, it's more common that individuals traveled third class, meaning that their entries would be closer to the end of the passenger list. Keep in mind that port names are often misremembered as the name of the ship, for example, SS Bremen, Hamburg, or Rotterdam. If the individual that you're researching could have entered under a different name, be sure that you're checking the last residence and destination column in case the locations listed there resonate with your research. I actually had a researcher who was able to track down his ancestors in the passenger list based on the small town in Iowa that was recorded in the destination field where he knew that the family had migrated to. If an immigrant was rejected and returned from Ellis Island, check to see if they arrived approximately two weeks later at Philadelphia, Baltimore, or via a Canadian border crossing. Ellis Island was known to be one of the most stringent of the ports, and you can sometimes find immigrants who failed to pass through Ellis Island successfully entering at another location a couple weeks later. Keep in mind that a rejection at Ellis Island was not deportation as the individual never officially entered the country, so they were readily allowed to attempt entry at another location. Next slide, slide number 16. A final tip to keep in mind is that name variations are common, so you have to be open-minded about interchanging letters or considering additional names an individual may have traveled under. For example, Scandinavians were known to travel under their father's given or middle name, or even under the name of the village where they were born. Next slide, slide number 17. There are also a number of common misconceptions and research errors that you should work to avoid. It is false that all passenger list records survive and are available for online research. Unfortunately, for any number of reasons like water, fire, et cetera, not every record survives. It is false that there is a list for every shift that arrived at a U.S. port and that all passengers were listed. In some cases, you can see that only the first cabin passengers are listed or the list may even be very clearly incomplete because it only records a handful of names for a vessel that obviously carried hundreds of passengers. It is false that passengers participated in the creation of the list and it is also false that the list were created at Ellis Island or the port of entry. Lists of individuals purchasing tickets were kept by the ticket brokers and these lists were submitted at the port of departure where the captain created the vessel's passenger list. This also means that any change in name did not occur at Ellis Island but rather at the point of ticket purchase. You need to be careful about any assumptions regarding ship report as recounting of arrival was often many years removed from the event and it was common to confuse ship name with port of arrival or departure. You also need to be careful about blanket statements like this record is not my immigrant because the name, age, nationality, destination, etc. is wrong. Just as with any genealogical research, you have to come in with an open mind and look at all the clues and context before making an assumption that a record couldn't possibly match the person that you're seeking. The link I provided on this slide is to an article that goes more in depth into some of the most common passenger manifest errors that researchers make. The first part of the article is specific to certain nationalities but into the article is actually pertinent to any researcher so it's well worth time to read it. Next slide, slide number 18. If you have an inclination that your immigrant ancestor may have been a seaman, vessel crew lists may be a useful resource for your search. The list exists because of an early 19th century law that required masters of American vessels leaving or arriving at U.S. ports to file crew lists with the customs agent. Foreign vessels were initially exempt from the law but the Immigration Act of 1917 required specific documentation about all alien seaman on vessels entering the U.S. Many of these lists have been digitized and are available in our online catalog and on ancestry.com or familysearch.org. Next slide, slide number 19. Vessel crew lists are similar to standard passenger arrival records where normally fewer pieces of biographical information recorded. Information listed could include name, birth date and birth place, last residence, nationality, and details about the vessel where they served. Next slide, slide number 20. If you are able to locate an immigrant ancestor on an arrival list, a good next step is to track down any existing ship photo. The photo may not give you specific insight into the individuals that you're researching but what it does provide is a glimpse into what their travels into the U.S. were like. Many ship photos have been digitized and can be found on ancestry.com or through a Google search on the vessel name. One of my colleagues was researching her great-great-grandmother Francesca Beck's entry to the U.S. Frances, as she was later known, is shown here with her husband, Colstein Shuffar. After discovering that Frances entered the U.S. on October 7, 1891 in New York to SS Friesland, we were able to locate a number of photos on both ancestry.com and online through a site dedicated to the Red Star Line that the ship was part of. Next slide, slide number 21. Some immigrants enter the U.S. through land-based ports of entry. Border crossing records from along the Mexican and Canadian borders can be a wonderful genealogical resource and many have been digitized through ancestry.com and familysearch.org. Steam ship lines and rail companies agreed to treat all passengers destined to the U.S. as if they would be landing at a U.S. port of entry. And the Immigration Act of 1891 required that information about immigrants entering the U.S. overland be recorded. At land border ports, inspectors prepared manifest lists. Take note that prior to October of 1906, this excluded native-born Canadians crossing the northern border. Also important to understand was that only those passengers declaring a U.S. destination will be listed on the records of arrivals. Next slide, slide number 22. Here are two sample Mexico to U.S. border crossing records for artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. You can see these documents record many of the same details as the standard vessel passenger arrival records we discussed earlier, but the information was recorded on individual cards rather than a manifest listing. NARA's website provides some great information about utilizing Mexican border crossing records if you visit the link I provided on this session's handout. Next slide, slide number 23. Canada to U.S. border crossing records can seem confusing at first glance. The records are often found in a record set titled, Manifest of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, Vermont District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic ports, 1895 to 1954. Often called the St. Albans list, these records actually reflect a variety of ports, in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Vermont, and Washington. I worked with a researcher who located a record for an ancestor who entered Buffalo, New York. Buffalo, New York and St. Albans, Vermont are 700 miles apart, but you can't discount these records just because someone may not have entered through Vermont. If you have not had luck locating your ancestor in a vessel passenger manifest, it doesn't hurt to check the St. Albans list. Next slide, slide number 24. Passport applications are a record set that may not cross your mind when researching immigrant ancestors, but they can be a great source of biographical data such as birth date and birth place, information about spouse and or father, date and place of immigration, and so on. Early passports were generally valid for two years or less, so you have to keep in mind that it's worth checking throughout an individual's entire lifetime because the same person may have had multiple passport applications. Next slide, slide number 25. There are some specific rules to keep in mind as you begin a search for passport records. First, until 1941, U.S. citizens were not required to have a passport for travel abroad. Two exceptions to this rule were brief periods of time during the Civil War and World War I. Second, the U.S. government only issued passports to U.S. citizens. Two exceptions to this rule were years between 1863 to 1866 and 1907 to 1920 when aliens who had declared their intent to become naturalized U.S. citizens could obtain a passport under congressional acts. Next slide, slide number 26. Passport applications from 1795 to 1925 are maintained in their original paper format at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, with digital copies available online through ancestry.com and fold3.com. Of note, fold3 only has through 1905 posted online. If you're looking for a passport issued April 25th, April 1925 through the present, your request will go through the U.S. State Department. Next slide, slide number 27. Except for a brief period of time during the Civil War, before World War I, alien visitors were not required to have visas in order to enter the U.S. The practice of requiring all aliens to obtain visas from U.S. officials abroad before departure to the U.S. began in 1917 as a war measure during World War I and has continued since then. NARA maintains visa applications created and maintained by the U.S. State Department for the years 1914 to 1940, but it's important to note that with the exception of precedent cases and files that contain policy material, individual case files from 1914 to 1932 were destroyed by the Department of State. NARA has a site specific to genealogical research using State Department records that I've provided a link to in the session handout. If visa records are of interest to your research work, especially for immigrants entering the U.S. from 1924 to 1944 timeframe, I would suggest looking at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services genealogy program, which I'll address further later in the session. Next slide, slide number 28. Naturalization is another big area of interest for researchers looking for immigrant ancestors. September 27, 1906 is an important date to keep in mind if you're diving into naturalization records. Prior to that date, any court of record, county, state, criminal, federal, and so on, could complete naturalization proceedings. After that date, the responsibility for naturalization procedures was given to federal courts with uniform rules and standardized forms following. Although it took time for the lower courts to let go of the practice, we've actually seen courts in more remote parts of the country continuing the work up into the 1970s and 80s. You can generally use 1906 as a date to shape where you start and focus your naturalization search. Be sure to visit the federal court site I've listed to determine what National Archives office maintains the records for the federal courts covering the state where your ancestor resided. Although some of these records have been digitized and made available online, there are many records that are only available in paper format at NARA locations. Next slide, slide number 29. Our discussion of naturalization records is best shaped by looking at the kinds of records created during the process and where those records exist. The Declaration of Intention, also called First Papers, declared an individual's intention to file a formal petition to become a citizen. Following the 1906 Act, aliens had to receive a certificate of arrival that verified legal immigration to the U.S. and you will often see the certificate of arrival with the Declaration of Intention in our holding. Early declarations are very limited in the details recorded. It could literally just be the individual's name, country of origin, and the dates that they appeared in court. Later documents, like the one for Chen Wingsu that's on the slide right now, include details about family, entry to the U.S., and even have a photo attached. It is worthwhile to note that starting in the mid-1950s, declarations were no longer required, and you begin to see only the petition for naturalization available. Next slide, slide number 30. The petition for naturalization, also called Final Papers or Second Papers, is the final step toward becoming a citizen. Filed a minimum of two years after the declaration, immigrants petitioned before the judge and were either granted or denied citizenship. The petition did not need to be completed at the same court as the declaration, and in many cases, if the petition was filed at a federal court, the declaration was consolidated with the petition when the actions took place at different locations. As with declarations, early records tend to record very little detail about the subject of the record. Unlike declarations, even though additional biographical information is recorded on later forms, you will not find photos attached to these documents. Next slide, slide number 31. Once citizenship was granted, an individual was issued a certificate as proof of citizenship. If the individual petitioned and received citizenship through the court, a certificate of naturalization was issued. If the individual derives citizenship through another individual, such as a parent or spouse, a certificate of citizenship was issued. Two copies of certificates were created. One was given to the individual, the other was kept by the court, and transferred to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS. Normally, certificates are not available through NARA, though, especially within our federal court holdings. But there are occasions where certificates issued April 1956 and after can appear within an INS alien file, which is a set of records we'll touch on soon. Next slide, slide number 32. Pre-September 1906, you may need to contact county or state courts or even reach out through archives or county historical societies to track down the declaration and petition. Of course, there are also handfuls of exceptions where the National Archives receive naturalization records from county courts, but you can't count on that. Just as September 1906 is an important date for determining what court created an early naturalization record, October 1991 is another important date because responsibility for naturalization proceedings again shifted hands, moving from the courts to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. For naturalization records created after October 1991, you have to place a request through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, USCIS. For any naturalization after September 1906, it is helpful to note that USCIS should have records of the actions taken. So if you've hit dead end trying to determine the correct court, it may be worthwhile to submit a request through their agency and see what you're able to find. USCIS has exclusive authority over any matters concerning citizenship after 1906, so they are the ultimate resource to confirm whether an immigrant received citizenship in the 1906 to present timeframe. Regardless of timeframe, when you're looking for naturalization records, it's helpful if you can provide the individual's name, including any variance and their country of origin, an approximate date range of when the naturalization could have occurred and where the individual would have been living at the time. That could include city, county, state. Next slide, slide number 33. A set of records I'd like to address are alien files, more commonly called A-files. The 1940 Alien Registration Act required all immigrants residing in the U.S. to visit their local post office and register their alien status with the federal government. As part of this process, the Immigration and Naturalization Service began issuing each alien an alien registration number, and on April 1st, 1944, began using this number to create individual case files. A-files were originally created to house all records of an alien not yet naturalized as they passed through the immigration and inspection process. Next slide, slide number 34. Ultimately, though, the files can potentially reflect information dating from the birth of the subject through their entry to the U.S. and subsequent interactions with the federal government during their time in the U.S., leading up to any final action, which could include deaths, naturalization, permanent residence status, or deportation. Documents on the files vary drastically from subject to subject as they were dependent on an individual's interactions with the federal government, but they can include applications, affidavits, correspondence, photographs, and more. Beginning in April of 1956, the Immigration and Naturalization Service streamlined their filing system and the A-file became the single point of documentation for immigrants. Starting at this point, the files can even include documentation of the naturalization process, including preparatory applications, copies of the declaration and petition, and the final certificate. Next slide, slide number 35. All A-files currently maintained by the National Archives are indexed in our online catalog. And as new files are added to our holdings each year, the catalog will be updated. You can search using first name and or surname, and we'll be looking for results with the title, Alien Case File for Persons Name, or A-file for Persons Name. With one exception, the A-files for the entire country, including U.S. territories, are being consolidated at the National Archives at Kansas City. It's important to note that some of the A-files from INS district offices in San Francisco, Honolulu, Reno, and Guam are maintained by the National Archives at San Francisco. Be sure to take note of the location of record listed for each result in the catalog to confirm that you are submitting your request to the correct NARA office. A-files are eligible for transfer to NARA for permanent retention when 100 years has passed since the subject's year of birth. Currently, we maintain A-files for individuals born 1918 and prior, but you have to keep in mind that NARA does not yet have all of the A-files for individuals born in that timeframe. Any A-files that have not yet transferred to NARA can be requested through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Next slide, slide number 36. Now slide number 37. Jumping off points for your immigrant ancestor research can show up in lots of places, from federal records like census, naturalization, and military service to family records like naturalization certificates, bibles and church records, newspapers, obituaries and gravesites, and even vital records. You really have to take time to consider what you can do with the information you find, because even small details can set you on a path. Next slide, slide number 38. The Citizenship column on U.S. Census forms can provide clues to an individual's immigration date and citizenship status. The column first appeared on the 1900 U.S. Census, although you always need to take the information with a grain of salt, the details recorded can start to give you a clear idea of timeframes when actions may have occurred and the kinds of records that you'll want to look for. For example, if you see 1903 as a year of immigration and AL recorded on the 1910 census, you would assume that you should potentially be able to locate a 1903 passenger arrival record, but you won't be looking for naturalization paperwork because the individual was still maintaining alien status in the U.S. at that time. If for that same person there is a P.A. recorded on the 1920 census, you can assume that they had started but not completed the naturalization process, meaning that they had filed their first papers between 1910 and 1920. And finally, if that same person has N.A. noted on the 1930 census, you can assume that between 1920 and 1930, the individual completed the naturalization process and obtained citizenship. So there should be naturalization and records available through the NARA office maintaining federal court records for the state or your ancestor residing. Next slide, slide number 39. In the same way that the census provides clues to citizenship, World War I draft cards are another NARA record that can help you determine your immigrant ancestor's status at a specific juncture in time. The cards have been digitized and are available online through the National Archives Catalog, Ancestry.com, and FamilySearch.org. Next slide, slide number 40. NARA's digitization partners have made a number of microphone publications and original records available through their websites. If you have searched through the National Archives online catalog, but have not found digital images for the records you are seeking, it can be helpful to review the listing of records and microfilm to see if the relevant records may have been captured by a partner organization. You can click Control-F on your keyboard to bring up a search box for keyword searching on the page, and each title includes a link out to the digital content on the partner web pages. That site is actually regularly updated as new materials are scanned, so you can fairly consistently trust that what you're seeing there is up to date in terms of what's available online. Next slide, slide number 41. It's also important to keep in mind that NARA does not maintain all of the federally created records relevant to immigrant research. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, U.S. DIS, maintains a variety of immigration and naturalization-related file types that have not yet transferred to the National Archives for permanent retention, including A-files and alien registration forms called AR2 forms, certificate files also called C-files, visa files, registry files, etc. If you aren't familiar with their agency, it will be worthwhile to review their genealogy program website to learn more about the records they hold and how to search and request copies. Next slide, slide number 42. Thank you for joining me today for this presentation, and I hope I've given you ideas for diving into research on your immigrant ancestry. As a quick heads-up, over the next year, I will be working to update all of the immigrant record-related web pages throughout NARA's archive.gov site. So, be sure to check out the www.archive.gov slash research slash immigration web page so that you can stay up to date on what NARA has available on-site and online related to immigrant ancestry. Are there questions I can answer at this time? Okay, Elizabeth, thank you very much for a very informative presentation. Yes, we received a number of questions during the course of your presentation, and we're going to do the best we can to address as many of them as we can. If we don't get to every question, we apologize in advance, but we'll see how many of them we can touch on here. The first set of questions we'll start with pertain primarily to Ellis Island. One question is, a grandfather came and went back to Italy several times. Can only find one. Are all records recorded, and will I be able to find them all pertaining to Ellis Island? Perhaps in Ellis Island records. I believe there probably are some. The other thing to keep in mind is that Ellis Island was not the only port that individuals could enter through, so there is potential that you should open up your search beyond just looking at New York. Okay, and another question is, are there reports for those who arrived in 1720? Prior to the establishment of the United States as a country, so there's not going to be federal records, what you're going to be looking for are something that may have been more locally created. Let's say that maybe a local newspaper was recording people who may have entered in through the country, or other kinds of local correspondence, things like that. Especially at that time you're going to be looking more to your state archives, your local historical societies, things like that. Okay, and what about immigration before Ellis Island opened? Any clues as to, you know, places to look for information on immigration that people who you would think would come to Ellis Island, but it wasn't open yet, it didn't exist? Yeah, you know, a lot of people assumed that Ellis Island was where everybody came through, but there are a lot of ports of entry all along the coastline. So it's important to keep in mind that, you know, you should just be kind of broadly checking all the different ports that are available. There are some great resources online that give you ideas of when different ports were open. So if you have an idea of timeframe when somebody may have come into the country, you can kind of start narrowing down what ports may have been open or not at the given timeframe, and that might help you narrow your search a little bit. The big thing to keep in mind when you're looking for immigrants is never to assume that somebody came in through New York. Yes, we got several questions along these lines. What are other ports than Ellis Island where immigrants would come into the United States? Could you just kind of, you know, list off a number of examples, because people are asking for, like, are there ones for New Orleans and so forth? Yeah, New Orleans is a port really anywhere along the eastern and western seaboard. If there was somewhere that a ship could come in, you could have immigrants entering there. There are probably hundreds of ports all along the eastern and western coast. Okay, yeah, so there's a potential for records there, possibly. Are there any ship passenger lists for immigration to Virginia and Maryland in the 1600s? Again, you're getting really early and you're outside the scope of federal records. So what you'd be looking for wouldn't necessarily be a passenger manifest, but perhaps something else that would have documented people making the move, whether it's correspondence, whether it's newspaper clippings, and in that case I would also suggest, you know, checking to see what might be available at the port of departure. Was there any documentation occurring on the other end of their trip that might be of assistance? Okay, and I have a specific question about Baltimore. When did immigration records start for Baltimore? Would you know that? I do not know that offhand, but that I know is information that we could readily track down. So it's worth going ahead and submitting that request in through inquire at narra.gov. And we can... Yes, just to repeat what Elizabeth said, if there's a question we can't answer or we don't get to your question, you can email us at inquire at narra.gov. That's the email address for receiving reference requests. And if you note Elizabeth Burns' presentation, we can get it forward to her accordingly. Where are the original records abstracted online for Castle Gardens? I can get a summary for my ancestor, but would like to view an original if possible. I'm not familiar with Castle Gardens. I don't know if you are. Yeah, so I'm familiar with Castle Gardens, but I will be honest. I don't know where the original records are for that, where the actual paper records are. That would be another one. If you send it into inquire, I can definitely do some looking and help you. But I will say because a lot of those records have been digitized and they are old and fragile, it is very rare that people access those original passenger manifests in person. Normally, we have researchers utilize the digital copies. Okay, here's an interesting one, getting into early World War I era and pre-World War I. Is there any way to find a passenger manifest for a ship that never arrived from Italy? It was torpedoed and sunk near Italy in 1915. In that case, I would actually suggest looking more on the Italian end of things. I am not as familiar with what Italy was creating in terms of departure lists or things like that, but I would think that maybe checking with the Italian National Archives and seeing what kinds of records they would maintain would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, because it never entered the US, you're not going to have those traditional immigrant manifests that you would have. So you would be looking for something that would have indicated their departure out of Italy. Okay, so we have questions coming from many different areas and topics and so forth. So pardon Elizabeth, we're trying to address them in an organized fashion if we can, but sometimes they're just going to vary wildly from one to another. So this question is in a different vein. Where would I find records for Slovakian aliens working in Pennsylvania coal mines? Looking roughly 1890 to 1907. Curious what kinds of records you were hoping to track down. There's definitely potential for trying to look to see if any of the coal mining companies happen to have any records of individuals who worked at their locations. At that point, I would say you're going to be trying to look for other kinds of records. Do you have any indication that they might have naturalized? Have you looked through the court records in that area to see if anything happens to show up about them? Have you been able to track them down in the federal census records? And what does that indicate about them? Things like that would be my suggestion. Okay, another, my grandparents' family first appear in the 1930 census. I cannot find when they came to the United States or where they came to the U.S. from in Europe. Nothing in Ellis Island or on Ancestry. Do you have any suggestions on other places to try or to start? Well, in the 1930 census, have you checked in the citizenship column and what do they indicate there about immigration and citizenship status? If you found them in the census, that at least means that you have an idea of where they resided in the U.S. So I would certainly reach out to the National Archives office covering that geographic area and see if they can be of assistance in helping guide, you know, are there naturalization records? Are there other things that you might consider? But I feel like you would definitely have some avenues for continuing a search. It just may be good to talk to a staff person so that they can give you a more specific guidance. Okay, and then we have a few questions that kind of cluster around the same topic. And that's pre-Revolutionary War and Revolutionary War era. Do records exist for immigrants from other countries? Do records exist coming from other countries during those timeframes? And do you have, what are suggestions that you may have for, especially when you're talking pre-War and then Revolutionary War and shortly thereafter, very early in the Republic? Yeah, I mean you really have to keep in mind if you are pre-Revolutionary War, the United States doesn't exist at that point. And so you aren't going to have any federally created records because you don't have a unified organization that would be creating anything. And even during the early time of the beginning of the United States up until 1819, you're really inconsistent. It's just kind of port by port if they happen to be recording things at any given time. Like I mentioned, really there's only two ports that kind of consistently kept records, but it's really hit or miss because you didn't have any single unit that was keeping record of things. And at that point, the whole premise of immigration wasn't necessarily something that was registering as something that they needed to be tracking. Really what you're going to be looking for in that early timeframe are, like I mentioned, anything from the end of departure, so the originating country, did they create anything about ship leaving? And then on the U.S. then you're really going to be looking more for those local records. Are there local diaries? Were there newspapers where they were recording names of people coming through? At that time, newspapers especially were much more, here's every detail about all of the people in this area right now. So you can often find names of all the people who were entering on a given vessel. But you're really not going to be looking at the National Archives. We are not going to be a good resource for those early timeframe. Okay. And then you noted that around 1819, federal records do start to become a little bit more consistent. Can you say a little bit more about that? Los Angeles were required. So that's when you start to see, beginning in January of 1820, is when you really start to see more consistency in the creation and existence. Okay. We have a few naturalization related questions. One is, so would naturalization process paperwork be in a state archives prior to 1906? For instance, like the mid-1950s in Maryland. Okay. Fairly safe bet that it probably didn't occur at a federal court. You really have to think when you're early, especially I would say early mid-1800s, you've got to think about how people would have been traveling in between locations to achieve naturalization. You know, they're not going to travel way out of their way to go to a federal court if there's a local court near them that would also complete the process for them. So if you know where somebody was residing, you really need to consider what would have been the closest courts geographically to that person. And in a lot of cases, that's going to be your county, your state, your criminal court that's in that local area. Some people did complete them at the federal courts. We do have federal records that are early. But pre-1906, because it wasn't standardized, they could go anywhere. And so you really do see that show up. Now, when it comes to where those records are located, that varies state to state, county to county. In some cases, you'll see copies of the records of the state archives. Some of them are still with those courts. Some of them are at local historical societies. In handfuls of cases, there are times where those county court records have ended up at the National Archives. So you really have to be open-minded about where you're looking for the records. And that's kind of the unfortunate thing about the pre-1906, is that you just have to go into it knowing that you're probably going to have to reach out through multiple sources in order to find the document. Okay, very good. Another question. My grandmother, born in the United States, lost her citizenship status upon marriage to my alien grandfather in 1913. According to the 1920 census records, would she have had to reapply for naturalization? I guess just to bring everybody up to speed on this, there was a law in place until 1922 that a woman's citizenship was tied to either her father or her spouse. So if you were a U.S. born woman and you married a German man, in the eyes of the federal government, you became a German citizen. Now, Germany wouldn't have really seen it that way necessarily, but that was how it was viewed from the U.S. perspective. In 1922, the law changed. Women obtained their own rights to citizenship, but you had a couple options. You could apply and obtain citizenship through the naturalization process, but there was actually a law put into place that allowed for repatriation at a later point. So in some cases, you'll see naturalization paperwork. Sometimes you'll see repatriation records. And sometimes they didn't know that they had lost their citizenship, and so you don't actually see any documentation of it. But there's a couple different possibilities. Both the repatriation records and the naturalization records will show up within the federal court records at the National Archives. Okay, this one's about a person's grandfather who was naturalized as a result of his World War I service. The person says they can't find World War I files. They were destroyed in a fire, and they haven't checked the local court files, but might NARA or the State Department have records? Yeah, there's definitely potential. We do have military petitions show up in our court records. So even though his military personnel file may not exist anymore, that doesn't mean that there's not documentation of his citizenship. I would definitely reach out through the National Archives office that covers the geographic area where he was living. Okay, I'm just looking through the remaining questions that we have here that have come in. Is it possible to locate special investigation records for Ellis Island? Yes, this person is referencing our inquiries that were held when people were detained at Ellis Island. There are not records for every single person that was detained, but there are cases where you can find those records. The files are part of the subject and policy records that exist at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Sometimes they're called the 56,000 files. There are actually a few different ways that you can track down files within that set. One is a set of microfilm, the T458 that has been digitized and is available on ancestry.com. You can try name searching, but sometimes you actually just have to go through it. It's not arranged by individuals' name. It's actually more of a topical subject-based index, but it can help you narrow in on where your immigrant's Board of Special Inquiry records may exist. There are some wonderful resources about tracking down those Board of Special Inquiry records on the USCIS website, so I would actually suggest shooting off an e-mail to inquire at nara.gov, and I can provide you with that direct link to give you a better idea of how to start that research. Okay, another question. My grandfather came to the United States from Trinidad in 1905. His final destination was Nebraska. Any idea what port he might have come through? I think the person's looking for ideas of where to start to look for potential ports of entry. Coming from in the southern part, I would suggest looking at Miami, New Orleans, some of the ports in that part of the country, because it's very unlikely that he would have come in through New York or any of the northeastern ports. I would focus your effort south. If you know that he entered in 1905, there's a pretty good chance that you should be able to find some documentation of him. If you have any idea that he might have naturalized, that might be a good way to come at it. If you have found him in the federal census, that might also give you some clues. So there's a few different ways to approach it, but I would say your kind of southeastern ports are going to be your target there. Okay, and we have one final question for you, and that is how about departure records? Do the United States maintain outbound manifests, especially for the interwar periods? For the interwar periods, but there are certain windows of time and certain sets of records that do exist regarding departures out of the U.S. That's something I would have to do some more looking into if you had a specific scenario. It would be easier to look at that way. Okay, thank you very much, Elizabeth, for your presentation to the audience. If the presenter did not get to your question, please send an email to inquire at narra.gov. 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