Welcome to America!  Without Emma Lazarus' poem, Liberty would be just another statue

America is a nation of immigrants where more than 35 percent (closer to 4o%) of the population -- or 100 million Americans -- has at least one relative who passed through Ellis Island - a tiny spot of land, part New York's, part New Jersey's, from 1892 until 1954. Of the 12 million people who arrived at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, only two percent were sent back.

"This marks an immigrant's first footstep in America, and provides information leading back to Europe and forward into America, stated Pet Zitko, spokeswoman for The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc." 

"It must be remembered that there were no rabbis in America in the colonial and early period of American independence. Women joined with men to start congregations. These Jews were mostly Sephardic, but Jews began to leave Germany and central Europe around 1820, and a small immigration continued until the 1880s when pogroms and other circumstances produced a rush of Jews from eastern Europe and especially Russia."

"In the early 19th century in Germany (before there was much of an exodus to the USA from eastern Europe), groups of young Jews from one town would band together, exchange information, and eventually proceed as a group, on foot, for the ports, often settling down together in the same town when they arrived in the USA. These were probably the original Fusegangers."

"By 1850 Western and Central Europe had an effective railroad network. It had reached well into Russia by the end of the century. There were up to four different 'classes' and prices; the 4th class with hard wooden benches and no frills was for the working poor. I doubt very much that it would have been commonly cheaper to walk long distances than to ride by train, factoring in the cost of shoe leather and food. Certainly it would have severely limited how much of one's possession one could take into the new world. There was also a good chance that one might get robbed on the roads and lose the money for the trans-Atlantic ticket."

"I suspect the term Fussgaenger came into more general meaning among Jews to perhaps mean emigrants in general (possibly limited to those going as a group). In the late 19th century there were passenger ships sailing out of the Baltic and Black Sea ports; it would have made little sense for a Jew to walk from the Pale to Bremen if he could take a train (or, if necessary walk) to Koenigsberg or Danzig and get on a ship there."

"We should always remember that both hardships and pleasures tend to grow in intensity as their history is remembered over the years and handed down through the generations." From a posting to JewishGen by Michael Bernet mBernet@aol.com on November 20, 2002.

"Most Jews emigrated to North America in the 1880-1925 period. This means that their transatlantic passage was on a steamship and their inland travel by rail (rather than riverboat." There is a CD: "Russians to America 1850-1896" available from Avotaynu, which was created by the Balch Institute in Philadelphia.
http://www.avotaynu.com/catalog.htm

"For many years, the shipping of emigrants to the U S and other refuges was a very lucrative business for the shipping companies. They therefore sent salesmen into those areas from which people were fleeing to sell tickets. There were several competing steamship lines and several different ports from which they could sail. This competition was frequently the reason why husbands would sometimes come via one port and would bring his family a couple of years later (after he had earned their passage money) via a different port. In each case, the travelers would have to get to the port. They frequently hired a cart and cart driver to get them to the port.  If it was a long distance sometimes the rode by cart to the nearest railroad which carried them to the port. They were carrying their possessions with them.
The trip was dangerous with many stories of thieves and murders on the way." From a posting by Joe Fibel

"Around half of the immigrants to Chicago and the Northern States entered the USA through Canada. Quebec was the major port, used from May to October, while Halifax and Saint John, NB were mainly used from November until April. Trains, often special immigrant trains, carried the passengers inland. Immigrants arriving after 1895 should be recorded in the US St. Alban's border entry records, which are indexed. If an immigrant is found in these records, the name of the transatlantic ship is usually noted, and the immigrant can be found on the Canadian manifests, which are microfilmed but not indexed." From a posting by Harry Dodsworth af877@freenet.carleton.ca on JewishGen on 3/25/2002

Further ... "many immigrants to the USA came through Canada. The huge lists of ship passenger to Canada exists today in the National archives in Ottawa. On those lists the Canadian authority wrote down a note about a passenger destination. The individuals without American visa spent some months in Halifax or some other camps before being transferred either by train or another ship to the USA. The trains departed from Montreal to Boston (info could be found in NARA), the ships went from Halifax to St. Albans or Boston (also Nara). To search in National archive in Ottawa, you have to know the year of arrival. All information is on microfilms (none is on the Internet." From a posting by Irene Kudish on JewishGen of 3/26/02

"After WW I, the US began the quota system (i.e., only a set number of people from a country were permitted to immigrate to the US).  The US consulate offices in co-ordination with the US INS administered immigration.  Each person emigrating to the US under this program had to obtain a visa.  Unfortunately, most visa applications of the "early years" under this program, were destroyed by the overseas consulate offices (they just didn't have the room to store all that paperwork, etc.).  The traditional ship passenger manifest records nevertheless are still available.

Immigrants after 1940 had additional requirements, like alien registration forms which you can obtain from the INS via a Freedom of Information Request."  From a posting by Laurence Krupnak

Every immigrant who arrived in America has an INS (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service) file on him/her, regardless of immigration status; naturalized, resident alien, illegal alien and so forth.  Initially, the status was that of an alien, and if you followed all the steps to citizenship (not all did) you ended up as a naturalized citizen.  Same process is followed with immigrants who arrive in the U.S. today.  Within these files you may find any of the following information:

a. Declaration of Intent (First Papers)
b. Second Papers
c. Naturalization Papers (Third or Final Papers)
d. 1940 Alien registration Report
e. Annual Alien Reports
f. Other documents specific to an immigrant's case

The most valuable documents for a genealogical researcher are the Declaration of Intent or the alien registration Report.

"I've noticed that *many* of your family searches are for *names* that we have here in Australia. Just to let people know that, when conducting family searches, they should not forget the possible Australian connection of about 100,000 Jews.   Jews have been here for over 200 years. Melbourne [Australia] has the largest Jewish population of approx. 40,000 and has the second highest settlement of Holocaust survivors in the world after Israel.   It has the only Holocaust Museum set up by actual survivors, as well as a Jewish Museum.  Most of the post-war Jewish immigration to Melbourne consisted of Polish Jews, with German Jews settling pre-war.   The Hungarian Jews came after 1956 but most tended to settle in Sydney, Australia [which also has a Jewish Museum]. Russian Jews followed while the South African Jews have been the more recent immigrants. Other main canters of Jewish settlement are Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra.  All of these cities have synagogues of various congregations, as well as Jewish Burial societies which also house family records e.g. Melbourne Chevra Kadisha www.mck.org.au Family searches can be accessed via our phone books www.whitepages.com.au specifying which town e.g. Melbourne, as well as the Australian Jewish News at www.ajn.com.au Various Jewish Community Councils are also a good source of information, as well as the Victorian Government Immigration Museum and the Dept. of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs at www.immi.gov.au From a posting by Adele Meren Melbourne, Australia on 6-5-05

It is important to remember that Ellis Island did not open until January of 1892. Therefore, searching for anyone before that date, came through Castle Garden (aka Castle Clinton) C. 1855-1890, or the Barge Office, c. 1890-1891 and 1897-1900. Also remember that New York was not the only port used. Canada, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Galveston, etc. were also points of immigration on the east coast.

Manifests from small ships with only a few passengers exist, with the entire manifest being a single page.  Employees on the ship are also named.  In the case of dates after Ellis Island closed, go to a National Archives branch that has microfilms of the non-Ellis Island manifests for N.Y.C. There are a number of finding aids there, and with the help of the staff, the manifest can be located fairly quickly.  You can also call or write to the National Archives branch in New York although fees will apply. From a posting by Ira Leviton on August 4, 2006

"Index of 1890-1891 New York Immigrants from Austria, Poland, and Galicia".    http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/USA/1890ny.htm


Ancestry.Com -  every-name index to passengers arriving in the Port of New York prior to the creation of Ellis Island is complete 1850-1891 except for the years 1871-74. The fee-for-service index is at
http://content.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=List&dbid=7488&r=0 

While searching New York records, many Birth records are not as good as the Marriage records because people didn't bother to register births. On the other hand, Death records are much better since a death certificate could not be issue unless proof of burial was provided. All of these records are available at the New York City Archives and indexes are available at the LDS libraries. You can write to the New York City Archives and ask for a search, if you can't visit the Archives in person.

Contrary to popular notion, not all Jewish immigrants to the U.S. came through Ellis Island and settled in New York or other cities along the Eastern Seaboard. Many of the more adventurous sought their fortunes along the ever-shifting frontier of the American West, which stretched from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

While the first Jews arrived in the West with the early Spanish expeditions of the 16th century, perhaps the true prototype of the Jewish pioneer of the 19th century was Solomon Nunes Carvalho who served as the official artist and photographer in the Fremont expeditions that explored vast tracts of the West, and then became one of the founding fathers of the Los Angeles Jewish community.

I suggest that you start your research and follow the steps outlined in
'Searching for an Immigrant's Origins: Quick Reference', go to
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/1697.asp

Here is an incredible resource - Web Detective.  This commercial site offers many methods of finding people and places and is well worth your time. Free search offer.
http://tmargulis.search8888.hop.clickbank.net

"Admiralty Court Records and Maritime Records" - authored by Laura Szucs Pfeiffer

"Ellis Island Interviews, In their Own Words" authored by Peter Coan ISBN 0816035482 This book offers first hand accounts of the immigration experience. Use my link to Amazon.com to get your copy.

"The Golden Land: The Story of Jewish Immigration to America" - authored by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and published by Crown Publishers/Harmony Books

"Guide to Genealogy Research in the National Archives" Rev. Ed. Washington, DC; National Archives Trust Fund Board

"Hidden Sources: Family History in Unlikely Places" - authored by Laura Szucs Pfeiffer and available from Ancestry.Com

"Jewish Immigrants of the Nazi Period in the U.S.A.: Guide to the Oral History Collection of the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration" - authored by Herbert A. Strauss Buy from Amazon.com

"Shores of Refuge A Hundred Years of Jewish Emigration" - authored by Ronald Sanders and published by Henry Holt & Co., New York in 1988. He describes Fusgeyers - men and women traveling by foot, sometimes quite organized into groups and putting on performances for their host community as they made their way to coastal cities. ISBN 0-8050-0563-3

"Special Sorrows: The Diasporic Imagination of Irish, Polish, and Jewish Immigrants in the United States" - authored by Matthew Frye Jacobson - Buy from Amazon.com

General Emigration 
Information

Admiralty Court Records - "It is a common misconception that admiralty court records are limited to cases pertaining to seamen and the vessels that traveled the high seas.  While a court with admiralty powers regularly oversaw such matters as seamen's wages, smuggling, piracy, prize (the confiscation of enemy ships and their cargo during wartime), shipwrecks, salvage, insurance, freight and passenger contracts, bottomry (using a ship as collateral) and contracts between merchants and mariners, it also had civil and criminal jurisdiction overall persons having any relation to maritime transactions, including shipbuilders and dockworkers."

"Legal records pertaining to individuals who lived along the shoreline of any navigable waterway of the United States, including lakes, rivers and canals, are likely to be found in admiralty courts.  In addition to dockets and case files, a researcher may find evidence such as ship registers, licenses, crew lists, manifests, passenger lists, seamen's contracts, logbooks, and other correspondence carried by ships."

"Records from American admiralty courts, as well as some English records obtained during the American revolution, can be found in most branches of the National Archives. Pre-colonial records can sometimes be found in England as well" From a posting by Ancestry.Com

Affidavits for Visas - In the 1930s, Jews wishing to immigrate to the US needed a Visa, obtainable from a nearby US Consulate. In order for a Visa to be issued, assuming a quota was met, one first had to have an Affidavit (s) from US residents (citizens?) who would vouchsafe the individual so that he/she would not become a financial burden on society. Thus, relatives, friends and sometimes strangers were beseeched for such Affidavits.

"Jim Bennett asked about State Dept records compiled in Europe in the 1930s as people tried to obtain visas to come to the US. On July 26, 1917, a joint order between the State Dept and the Dept of Labor required that all aliens wishing to immigrate, obtain visas from American consular offices. Congress sanctioned this order 10 months later. In the 1920s, legislation
increasingly limited quotas. By 1929, total immigration was held to 150,000 immigrants from Europe. Even family members and agricultural workers who had previously had priority were no longer given such priority.

Obtaining a quota number was, therefore, extremely difficult but, still, many thousands of people every day, sought permission to enter the US at the nearest consular office. These consular post records (Record Group 84) are in the Diplomatic Branch at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. To my knowledge, they are not on microfilm and so must be researched in person at that facility. What is in the consular post records and how are they organized? They are bound by consular post and year according to the topic which was organized by a decimal system. Visa applications were, therefore, filed together but general correspondence was filed by date. The indexing system used might have worked for the State Dept but it doesn't work well for any outsiders. An index is badly needed so that people from around the world could simply write to the National Archives to request copies of documents.

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington conducted a massive indexing project for WWI era consular post records. An article about them is in the latest issue of Avotaynu. All of the comments pertain to later periods as well. JGSGW always meant to do the records from the 1930s but such an effort takes large numbers of volunteers willing to spend long hours at the College Park facility. Such a team didn't materialize under my recent two year tenure as research chair of JGSGW.

The other side of the picture is Record Group 59:  Protection of Interests of U.S. Citizens. The whole RG consists of State Department correspondence. This material includes letters from relatives in the US seeking information about family in Europe or seeking assistance with transmitting money, food, clothing, etc. As communication broke down, these requests reflect the anxiety and helplessness that existed. The whole record group is essentially correspondence. Unfortunately, the daily log was the only indexing system. If the relatives didn't write English well, they often asked a local government official or an attorney to write for them. The index shows the name of the letter writer but not the names of any family members mentioned in the correspondence. Useless, really. Together, these State Dept materials are extremely valuable and mostly untouched resources for Jewish genealogists.

Perhaps one possibility is to mount a project to pay people to create indices to these records, much as JRI involves paying people in Poland to index records. This would take the matter out of the hands of volunteers and get it done!  In fact, the Russian Consular Records that I wrote about a few weeks ago, were indexed with funds raised from existing JGS groups. I was the project coordinator on that effort. I hired and supervised translatorsand the massive collection was indexed in a bit over a year.  Any thoughts on this idea? From a posting by Suzan Wynne

Alien Resident Registration - In 1940, in response to threats of war, the US required every alien resident to register at their local Post Office. Aliens filled out a two page form, which was numbered and sent to the INS. Once the Ar-2 form had been process, the AR-3, or Alien registration Receipt Card (AR-3) was torn off and mailed to the registered alien. The alien then carried the AR Card to show compliance with the law.

The form contains information including many names (the name used upon entry to the US; Maiden Names; Nicknames; Aliases), Address, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Citizenship, Sex, Marital Status, Race, Physical Description, Date, Port and Vessel/Carrier of Last Arrival in the US, Class of Admission, Date of First Arrival in the US, Number of Years in the US, Occupation and Employment information, Membership Information (Clubs, organizations, societies), Military Service (Country, Branch, Dates), Declaration of Intention and Petition for Naturalization Information, Number of Relatives living in the US (Parents, Spouse, Children), Arrests and more!

How to get copies: early registrations (c. July 1940-April, 1944/A-numbers below 12,000,000) are on microfilm in INS custody, searchable by name, date of birth and place of birth. These records are subject to the FOIA/Privacy Act. It takes around 6 months. Details can be found at 
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/history/immrecs/areg.htm

The INS web site is
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/
and contains a list of all INS offices.  You can download the necessary forms. 
If the person that you want to obtain copies of naturalization papers is deceased, you need to prove that the person is deceased (e.g., with a death certificate).  A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information will have to be submitted.  Here is information about INS FOIA requests and the form that has to be submitted:

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/foia/index.htm 

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/foia/request.htm

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/g-639.htm 

INS Microfilm Reel# List - this website has a load of good information and instructions on securing INS records for genealogical purposes.  Website lists Information on: Ship Passenger Manifests, Land Border Arrival records, Visa Files 1924-1944, Alien Registration records
http://uscis.gov/graphics/aboutus/history/Immrecs/ImmRec.htm

New York Naturalization -
http://www.jgsny.org/kingsintro2.htm
for Brooklyn naturalizations. The records are kept in the Kings County Clerk's Office.  The National Archives houses Southern District of NY records of naturalization but not all districts in NY or all courts. 

"Joan Parker housemom@att.net wrote... I understand I can send/pay for copies [of naturalizations] from NARA on Varick Street in NY. Does anyone know if FOIA gets their unreadable copies from NARA in NY."

"The BCIS (formerly INS) makes copies from its own microfilm. The National Archives-Northeast Region on Varick Street in New York holds the original naturalizations created in NYC's two federal courts (Southern and Eastern Districts) and can make better copies."  Money-saving tip: Italian Genealogy Group website
www.italiangen.org
where many of us are using the Southern District naturalization index, says to send NARA $10 per name when requesting copies of naturalization records. In fact, NARA policy is to copy up to three person's records for $10 (maximum 20 pages total).  From a posting by Renee Stern Steinig rsteinig@suffolk.lib.ny.us

The Italian Genealogical Group created an online index to naturalization which took place at the U.S. District Court - Southern District in Manhattan from 1926 to 1949.
http://www.italiangen.org/databaselist.stm

The indexed records are in the custody of the National Archives-Northeast Region, 201 Varick St., New York, NY 10014
www.archives.gov/facilities/ny/new_york_city.html

                --------------------

"Ilya Zeldes  wrote "2x-148658 1/28/43" is a handwritten notation on a passenger record. It means that a Certificate of Arrival was sent to the Naturalization District #2 on January 28, 1943. According to information available, the District #2 was the INS Naturalization Office in New York, NY. Its boundary and Jurisdiction were in the Southern NY. May someone please tell me where this office was and where it is now (the street address)? I mean, where should I write to and ask for records?"
                                                                 .................
  
"Having just gone thru the process of trying to find someone using a similar notation, it is not as easy as would be hoped The cert of arrival number is NOT something that is indexed anywhere. I just means that the petition for naturalization was applied for in the Southern District of NY (hence the #2-) but as the people at the US naturalization office in Manhattan told me (that's were the original records for that district are held), the person may never have completed the process, or gone to another district to get naturalized. May even been naturalized at a city court not federal!. The federal records are on the
http://italiangen.org

site and indexed by name. You need to try to find the person by name and a date after the 1/28/1943 date on the notation. You may want to check the site for the other NY districts to see if they filed there. Once you get the Petition number from the site, you can follow the
directions for getting a copy. (by the way, the actual original file contains the cert of arrival form with the number you have already so you can verify it is the right person)"  From a posting by Jeff Barnett Bensalem, PA

Online Searchable Naturalization Indexes & Records
naturalization.html

"I was at the National Archives-Northeast Division (NYC) today and discovered that all the Sou