Volume 6 Issue 3 Fall 1999
And What You Can Expect When You Find Them
For those with immigrant ancestry, the usual object of a genealogical search is to determine the place of birth. For the purpose of this discussion, an immigrant is one who arrived in the United States after 1789. Colonial immigration is not the subject at hand. There are two government-related documents that may provide a place of birth. These are immigration records and naturalization records, otherwise known respectively as passenger arrival records and citizenship records. This article will deal with the latter.