In our last post, we discussed the steps you can take to learn more about your Italian ancestors. In this post, we are looking more closely at the records you will find to locate the town your ancestor came from.
One of the main documents you will need to find are U.S. census records. These are records that will give you a clue to who the immigrant ancestor is. Why? Because of several columns you will find in several censuses. For example, the 1930 U.S. Census asks for the birth place of the person listed in the census and the birth place of that person’s father and mother. In the 1930 census, my grandfather lists his birth place as Italy and his parents’s birth places as Italy. Since I knew my father was born in the U.S., that makes my grandfather the immigrant ancestor!
Going back to the 1920 U.S. Census, it lists not only place of birth for the person on the census and their parents, but also their citizenship status. This is where you will learn if your ancestor was naturalized as a U.S. citizen or not. If they were, there would be a record you will need to locate that can tell you the town they were from. If not, you know that you will need to seek out other records for that information. An “Na” in the column indicates Naturalized, an “Al” indicates Alien status and not naturalized, and “Pa” indicates Papers or the naturalization process has started but not completed.
The 1910 U.S. Census contains, besides birth place for the person and their parents and citizenship, but the year of immigration. This will help you locate the passenger list your ancestor is on. Now you get the idea. Census records contain many clues to track your ancestor. This research works not only for Italian ancestry, but also for other ethnic groups as well!
Where do you find such a wonderful bunch of documents? The usual suspects – Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and the National Archives among others.
So now that you get the idea of how you find clues in the U.S. Census, it’s time for you to delve into these marvelous records. Tune in next time for more record searches. What information have you found in U.S. Census records? Let us know in the comments below!
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