HELP US HELP YOU!

Dear NGS Conference Attendee –
If you,

• Have foreign ancestors you want to find
  
• Are going to visit the Family History Library during your stay in Salt Lake City
• PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING TO HELP THE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS HELP YOU IN THAT PROCESS
  

• Find your ancestors in minimally the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 U.S. censuses to obtain year of immigration information
  
• If they came early, find them in the 1850-1900 censuses
  
• If there are state censuses, you may try and find them in those – information given there can be also helpful. You can check on our Wiki to help you with this. US State Censuses

Family researchers also need to do a “genealogy dig” in the basement and attic and look for things such as:

• Hanging or stored tintypes, daguerreotypes, copper plates, or old brass photos with names, dates, or places on them, either front or back
• Vital records (birth, marriage, death, burial certificates or notices, doctor’s records or equivalent), both U.S. and foreign .
• Church records (baptismal, confirmation, marriage, death, burial,), both U.S. and foreign.
• Letters/picture postcards from the old country with people and/or place names on them.
• Obituary notices about aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, neighbors, and friends who may have come from the same area in the old country as your ancestors.
• Scrapbooks with any articles, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and so forth in a foreign language.
• Photos or picture plates of any kind with printed and/or written names of people or places
• Commemorative certificates which may list schooling / other accomplishments in a foreign place
• Certificates of or applications for insurance policies, driver’s licenses, fraternal orders, clubs, employment, social benefits cards, pension benefits, savings funds, bank accounts, and so forth.
• Copies of civil or criminal court papers, or documents which ask for birth place, age, birth date.
• Front, middle, back fill-in pages of Bibles, religious books, or any other types of printed booklets, pamphlets or printed matter from a foreign country.
• Medical records of any kind which asked for date and/or age, and place of birth or residence.
• Copies of homestead applications, deeds, wills, naturalization applications, etc.
• Information obtained from family stories, legends, oral interviews with relatives, friends and neighbors of relatives, which can then be checked against more reliable sources. A nosy or gossipy neighbor can also be a great source of family history info!
• ANY documents, certificates, postcards, pictures and so forth with place and/or people names on them which are in a foreign language and/or ”funny” handwriting. Example: many European immigrants brought their copy of their smallpox (kopper) vaccination with them, and it’s now lying in the attic or basement trunk because no one can read it nor knows what it is. It could list a birth place!
• Bring excellent photo copies or digitized images of anything you find with you. They may contain the clues needed to get you back across the ocean!!

Help us help you!