One of the biggest challenges in tracing your family history is locating information about immigrant ancestors. Because most foreign records are kept at the town level, discovering the name of your immigrant's town, county, or parish of origin is an important goal. Without this information, it will be very difficult to expand your research to your ancestor's native country.

Begin by learning as much as you can about that person. Talk to living family members and search through family possessions or histories for evidence of the family's origins. Are there any marriage records, death certificates, naturalization certificates, photographs, funeral cards, newspaper clippings, military records, or letters from relatives back in the old country? Was the family surname changed at some point in the past? What religion did the family practice and/or what church did they attend? Are there any other clues that family members can think of that may point to the family's origins?

If that doesn't provide the information you're looking for, turn your search to public records, including vital, tax, census, land, military, and probate records. Begin with your immigrant ancestor's death. Death certificates, probate records, obituaries, and tombstones may indicate a birthplace or, at least, a country of origin. If your ancestor died after about 1962, try a search in the Social Security Death Index (see Chapter 5). With the information from the index you can order a copy of the application he filled out when he applied for a social security card. These forms almost always give place of birth and names of parents.

After that, a good place to search for information on immigrant ancestors is in the federal census schedules. Begin with the most recent census in which your ancestor appeared and work your way back to 1850, or as far as you can. The 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 censuses each indicate the person's year of immigration to the United States and naturalization status (“Al” for alien, “Pa” for “first papers,” and “Na” for naturalized). These may help lead to passenger manifests or naturalization records for your immigrant ancestor. The 1850 to 1930 censuses indicate the person's state or country of birth, which can help narrow down your search. The 1880 to 1930 censuses also indicate the parents' birthplaces. Sometimes you get lucky and find a census taker who writes in the town or county as well!

With the information you glean from census records you can often begin a search for your immigrant ancestor in passenger lists and naturalization records (discussed in detail later). Early naturalization and passenger records generally only provide the country of birth, but more recent naturalization records and passenger records (after about 1906) will usually indicate the town of birth as well.