Wayne County, Ohio Online Resource Center:Documents needing wikification/Ethnic Fair/Tracing Your Immigrant Ancestor

1. When tracing your immigrant ancestor, you begin with what you know and work to the unknown.
2. Look for a paper trail within your own home. Is there a passport, an obituary, death certificate, family history, journal/diary, or some other document that includes the specific place of birth?
3. Contact relatives to discover clues to help research your immigrant ancestor. Some oral histories may have been passed down through the generations that may provide some clues to the birth place of your ancestor. Other relatives may have done substantial research and have discovered the origins of your ancestor.
4. Contact or visit places of residence of your immigrant ancestor. Seek obituaries, death certificates or death records, marriage records, newspaper articles, naturalization records, or other documents that may provide birth information on your ancestor.
5. Use the U.S. Census to help in your search. The U.S. Census was taken every 10 years beginning in 1790. The most recent available for public viewing is the 1930 U.S. Census. With the exception of the 1790 and 1840 U.S. Census, all census records contain clues to immigration. The 1900 U.S. Census was the first census that asked for the specific year of immigration.
6. Use both subscription databases and free websites to search when your ancestor came to the United States. Passenger and immigration lists, census records, and compiled genealogies are some options available to the researcher.
7. Take time to learn about the naturalization laws. These changed on a regular basis.
8. Take time to read the history of the country where your ancestor emigrated. Knowing the political, social, economic, and military history may provide useful insight into the history of your family.
9. The United States did not require ship passenger lists until 1820. Passenger lists prior to the 1890s seldom provide the town of origin of the immigrant.
10. The Federal government and the states started keeping records in 1790. Some Oaths of Allegiance and similar documents renouncing one’s allegiance to his native country were kept prior to 1790 at the local level. Most of these records have been published in book form.
11. After September 1906, naturalization forms became standardized and duplicate records were forwarded to the newly formed Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. Usually, more details pertaining to the immigrant may be found on post-1906 naturalization records.
12. Passports were first issued in July 1796 and became more popular in the late 1840s. However, American citizens were not required to carry passports until 1914, with the outbreak of World War I.
13. Once you find the town of origin of your ancestor, you may desire to order in microfilm of the native town to continue your search. You may visit any affiliate of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT. The Wayne County Public Library, Wooster is an affiliate and can order in film for a charge of $5.50 per reel.
14. Once you have exhausted all resources available here in the United States, you may want to begin your search in the native country.