In this episode, Diana and Nicole discuss finding immigration records for ancestors arriving in the United States after 1906. They provide a timeline of important immigration laws and their impacts, such as the 1906 establishment of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, the 1917 Immigration Act, the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, the 1924 National Origins Act, the 1945 War Brides Act, the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act, and the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.
They explain the importance of using census records, naturalization records, and other U.S. records to gather clues about an ancestor's immigration timeline. They discuss various types of immigration records, including passenger lists, hospital records, detainee lists, and more.
Diana and Nicole share a case study on Birger Gustaf Soelberg, tracing his immigration from Sweden to the United States, his residency in Worcester, Massachusetts, his work as a seaman, and his eventual intended emigration to Canada in 1926. They highlight the importance of thorough research in multiple records to piece together an ancestor's immigration story.
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This is Research Like a Pro, episode 313, Immigration Records, Part 4, after 1906. Welcome to Research Like a Pro, a genealogy podcast about taking your research to the next level, hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder, a credited genealogist professional. Diana and Nicole are the mother-daughter team at FamilyLocket.com and the authors of Research Like a Pro, a genealogist guide. With Robin Werthland, they also co-authored the companion volume, Research Like a Pro with DNA. Join Diana and Nicole as they discuss how to stay organized, make progress in their research, and solve difficult cases. Let's go! Today's episode is sponsored by newspapers.com. Hi, Research Like a Pro crowd. Hi, Mom. How are you? Hi, Nicole. I am well. How are you doing? Great. I've been reading a book called The History of Love County, Oklahoma, which is where I visited on my research trip. And I ordered this book through Interlibrary Loan and it arrived yesterday and it was really fun to just start reading it after visiting there. I had a lot of questions and it's been wonderful to kind of just immerse myself in the history of this one little place. And it kind of reminded me of the joy and challenge of creating a locality guide because it is a joy to learn so much about a place that you really understand what happened there. It makes it so much easier to find the records you need. And then it's a challenge because you start to find so many resources that your locality guide gets so long and you can spend forever working on it and it's kind of the process of becoming an expert on a certain place. So it's such a joy and such a challenge. I love that you're becoming an expert on Love County where so many of our ancestors were living. It just doesn't make you wonder how much they all knew about each other because it's a small place. Yeah. Well, obviously there was the Frasiers and the Harris's whose children married each other and they met there and there's actually several other Harris's from our Harris, John C. Harris's his father's sibling lived there. And you know, there's a lot of people from our family did live there. It's pretty cool. I'm far from an expert, but I just love beginning to fully understand the place better. And I think that not having lived there, it's hard to fully understand it. But being able to read these accounts in the Love County history book of people who have lived there their whole lives and kind of understand the culture and the community and what it was like for their grandparents who lived there. It's really helping a lot. So that's wonderful. And you know, a lot of the county histories that we've talked about in the past were published back in the 1880s. Well, Love County, Oklahoma wasn't created until statehood, you know, in 1907-1908-ish. And so it's like similar to other counties that were created a hundred years before about the time when they created their county histories. So it's interesting to have like such a different timeframe for Oklahoma. Right. That is. Well, I'm excited to learn more about that from you. As you study that, well, let's do some announcements. We have our air table guides available on the website. We have air table research logs for genealogy, the quick reference second edition, and then tracking DNA matches with air table quick reference. So if you're interested in learning air table, these are wonderful guides that can really help you to get started. We're excited for our July research like a pro webinar. This series has been so fun this year. And this one will be held on July 20th, which is a Saturday at 11 AM Mountain Time. The title is Who Is Grace Brown's Mother? And the presenter is Mark Thompson. He will be talking all about using indirect evidence and DNA to confirm Anne Hayes as Grace Brown's biological mother. This is a three generation study tracing a matrilineal line back to Grace Brown, Grace's great, great grandmother. Grace was born in England and died in Massachusetts. And so the topics will also include England research. So we're excited and looking forward to that and learning from Mark, who is a graduate of the research like a pro of DNA study group, and he authors the blog making family history. We are also thrilled to announce that our next research like a pro study group which begins August 24th is now forming. So registration is open. You have a few more weeks to decide if you will join us. Registration does close on August 10th. And if you have been through the process and you're interested in being a peer group leader, the application is on our website and we would love to hear from you. We are also excited about our AI workshop which we will be discussing how to use artificial intelligence in the research like a pro process and that will be July 29th to August 1st. That is four days and two hours in the morning and you'll have lots of opportunities to practice and then share with your peers what you've been doing and our registration for that is now open. Yeah, and I'll just mention that early bird registration for the study group ends July 31st. So make sure you take advantage of that before you lose the opportunity to have $50 off. Well today we are continuing our series of immigration episodes. So we're talking about immigration records after 1906 which was a pivotal year for finding immigration records. And it really depends on record availability and good search techniques whether or not you can find that immigration record for your ancestor after 1906. One of the challenges will be identifying your ancestor among people of the same name. As time goes by in the United States there are more and more people and more and more opportunities for you to get confused with people who have the same name as your ancestor. So thorough research in the US to understand all the records about your research subject is very important to find all the clues. Key to understanding 20th century immigration is knowing the laws and the historical context that influenced an ancestor's desire to immigrate and leave their home country. And looking for immigration patterns can put an ancestor's choices into perspective across the broader framework of their life. As immigration increased the United States government became concerned with allowing undesirables into the country, various acts excluded people from Asian countries, people with mental and physical illnesses or disabilities and other identifying factors. When I say undesirables that's in quotes because that's kind of how the government viewed various people coming in that they wanted to limit as people who maybe they didn't want to come into our country. So the acts of immigration throughout this time period were mostly focused on excluding people. Right, so if you're wondering where you can find these laws the Library of Congress has published them and they have all the laws private and public ever enacted by Congress. And we're going to talk about some of the major laws with far reaching implications. We can't of course cover every single one but we'll give a brief description and just explain a little bit about what it was about and how it would have affected our ancestors. So if you're researching an ancestor who immigrated and you have a specific date of immigration go to the appropriate law that was in place at the time that they immigrated to understand more about why they were allowed to enter the US and what challenges they might have had to overcome to enter. So we'll start with 1906 and this was the establishment of the Bureau of Immigration and Natural So on June 29th 1906 the United States Congress approved, quote, an act to establish a Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization and to provide for a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens throughout the United States end quote. So that's kind of a long title for an act but it's really important to our research to understand this following statement. That it shall be the duty of the said bureau to provide for use at the various immigration stations throughout the United States books of record where in the commissioners of immigration shall cause a registry to be made in the case of each alien arriving in the United States from and after the passage of this act of the name, age, occupation, personal description including height, complexion, color of hair and eye, the place of birth, the last residence, the intended place of residence in the United States and the date of arrival of said alien and have entered through a port, the name of the vessel in which he comes. So this is why we are so happy to find an ancestor who immigrates after 1906 because these records are so much better than the ones previous and that's all because of this act. I love acts like that. In 1917 there was another immigration act. Throughout the history of immigration various acts have excluded certain individuals from entering the United States. So on February 5th, 1917 Congress passed the immigration act of 1917 which began by requiring attacks of $8 for every alien. However, children under 16 years of age accompanied by a parent would not be subject to the tax. Section three excludes a wide range of people suffering from psychopathic inferiority, alcoholism, tuberculosis or any other disease, criminals, vagrants, anarchists and prostitutes were excluded as well as immigrants from most Asian countries. Then in 1921 there was the Emergency Quota Act. After World War I many Europeans wanted to come to the United States, Congress feared the influx of aliens and in 1921 it passed the Emergency Quota Act for the purpose to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States. This act limited the number of people admitted annually to the US to 3% of the number of foreign born persons of a specific nationality who were currently residing in the US as determined by the 1910 census. A drop in immigration followed and caused confusion among people who were denied entry after the quota had been filled. Well, in 1924 we have the National Origins Act and in 1924 Congress wanted to make the 1921 Emergency Quota Act permanent and this act reduced the quota of immigrants to 2% of the population of a specific nationality per the 1890 census and capped overall immigration to 150,000 people per year. A minimum quota of any nationality was to be 100. To immigrate a person had to apply for a visa at a US Consulator Embassy an interview would ensue and the consultant would determine whether the person was allowed to immigrate or was rejected. The immigrants most affected by this new act were those from southern and eastern Europe. The act also excluded immigration from any Asian country except the Philippines which was an American colony at the time. And then we have the 1945 War Brides Act with the end of World War II Congress passed the War Brides Act which took effect on 28 December 1945. This act allowed aliens, spouses, natural children and adopted children of members of the US armed forces to immigrate outside of their respective nation's quotas and this allowed Asian Americans who served in the military to bring their wives to the US for the first time. This act expired three years later in December of 1948. Oh wow, well that's good I guess. Okay, let's do this next act in 1948 called the Displaced Persons Act. Following World War II displaced persons from Europe where granted visas and asylum seekers of people already in the US were allowed permanent citizenship status. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 authorized 200,000 displaced persons. A person first had to apply and be investigated by a government agency then if found eligible would be granted a visa. So Section 3 says during the two fiscal years following the passage of this act a number of immigration visas not to exceed 202,000 may be issued without regard to quota limitations for those years to eligible displaced persons. Next we have the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act. Congress enacted the Immigration and Naturalization Act in 1952 which removed restrictions based on race. Quotas were still allotted by the nation with most quotas going to northern and western Europeans. The Asian Pacific Triangle restriction capped Asian immigration overall at 2,000. Priority was given to skilled workers and their families. And then in 1965 we had the Immigration and Nationality Act. In 1965 Congress overhauled the immigration system and eliminated the national origin system introduced in 1924. The new law prioritized reunifying families, employment and refugees. Immigration from each country was capped at 20,000 and for the first time this included those from the American hemisphere. Unfortunately the law didn't provide for unskilled workers in areas such as agriculture resulting in many illegal immigrants from Mexico as they crossed the border to find work. Alright well we've been through several years really really quickly but hopefully it gives everyone listening an idea of the impact of these acts. So you can see how if you have an ancestor who was immigrating or perhaps trying to immigrate during this era you can find the act that would really have affected them. Well when we are doing our research and we are trying to learn about our ancestors immigration we really have to look at clues from the US records and establish their identity. The records began being created when they left their home country and arrived in the US. Whether they settled permanently in the US or traveled back and forth like many people did they could be named in family sources, county histories, vital records, naturalization records, military records, passports, voting records, ethnic church records, newspaper, census records and land records. So many different places where we could find information and each one of those could give us some clues about the home country, perhaps the ship's name, the date of immigration and family relationships. We are looking for a body of evidence to uniquely identify our ancestors among people of the same name, similar identities. And immigration records are one piece of that but we have to use them with other records because there are so many people immigrating to the US in this era. We may think that we have a really unusual surname until we look at that country, that village, that place and then everybody has the same surname. So it's really important that we look at names, ages, occupations to try to uniquely identify our ancestor. Absolutely, that's such a good advice. Well, if the ancestor was alive during the 1900 to 1940 US federal censuses, it's important to look at their immigration information noted on those schedules. Each year asked similar questions such as year of immigration, number of years in the US, naturalization status and so forth. Many naturalization and immigration research can give us our best chance at finding an ancestor's information. You can look at our three-part blog series written by Diana for details on naturalization records. Okay, let's break it down by a year. So the 1900 federal census asks for year of immigration to the US, number of years in the US, whether still an alien having applied for citizenship or naturalized. And some of the letters you might see are AL for alien, PA for first papers filed and NA for naturalized. And I've seen people who mistakenly think NA means not applicable. So if it's blank, then it's probably not applicable, but if it's NA, that means naturalized. For 1910, the questions were for foreign-born males, 21 years and older, whether naturalized or alien, and once again, AL is alien, PA is for first papers filed, and NA is for naturalized. 1920, it asks whether naturalized or alien, and then it has a new one, which is NR not reported, but the other symbols, A or AL for alien, NA for naturalized, and PA for first papers filed, and it asks for the year of naturalization, which is the only census to do so. 1920 is unique in that way. 1930 asked for the year of immigration and whether naturalized. And 1940 asked for birthplace citizenship of foreign-born, where NA is naturalized, PA is having first papers, AL is alien, AM, CIT is American citizen born abroad. Well, what's interesting about all of this census information is that sometimes it doesn't correlate with other census records or other records outside of the census record group. And this is because the informant was not always the immigrant, but it could have been another household member who just didn't know the information, or maybe just guessed. Oh yeah, mom immigrated in about 1908. While using what is available, we can get a rough estimate of an ancestor's timeline and approximate date of immigration, or at least a date range. Well, what kind of records do we need to look at? Well, we all might think that ship passenger manifests are the main record to search. But in reality, there were many types of records created. When a person arrived in the United States, they could be listed on any of the following records, a passenger or a rival list, otherwise known as a ship manifest, but also hospital records. And teeny lists, alien registration, like LPC, which stands for lack of proper credentials, naturalization records, newspapers, and periodicals. Records were also created when a person left their home country. So don't forget about that avenue. These could include the sale of their property, permits to emigrate, and those are from Germany, and dentures, work permits, travel documents, emigrant lists, church records, and more. There are additional record types, such as border crossings between the US and Canada or the US and Mexico, passport applications, and crew lists. I've seen passport applications for ancestors, and they're really interesting and often include photos. Oh, they are. They're wonderful. There's so many records. Well, you might be thinking, "Okay, I want to find all those records, but where do we find them?" Luckily, we have the National Archives that holds the Passenger Arrival Records from 1820 to 1982. So you may get really excited and go look for your ancestor and can't find them. And that's because there are gaps, and the records are by no means complete. But what they have have been microfilmed, and they're currently digitizing them. So I look forward to the day when all of those are digitized, which will be wonderful. The FamilySearch Research Wiki page for US Immigration Passenger Arrival Records will break down for you all the various collections. This is really helpful because it's by United States City and Year, and it gives you direct links to the collections on FamilySearch, Ancestry, Find My Past, and My Heritage. So you may not have a good idea where to start, so you might want to start with a broad search first. And then if the ancestor isn't located, begin searching very specific databases. Ancestry.com has a major collection simply titled "Passengerless." This can be filtered by location and date, and basic information for the ancestor can be filled in. Within this large collection are smaller data collections specific to a port, such as New York or Alabama. For example, if you know that your ancestor was a sailor out of Boston, Massachusetts, one is search, the Massachusetts Boston Crew List, 18/11 to 1921. So you can use your search engine, or you can browse the crew list by date. And although indexed, your ancestor's name could be difficult to read and indexed differently than you would expect. We always research our ancestors thoroughly in the US records, such as the census and review family knowledge before moving to immigration, and that will help us to identify our ancestors among those of the same name. Yes, we really need to build that profile of who the person is, who their associates were, when they were born, where they were born, because it is so easy to get those people confused if you're just only looking at names on the passenger list. Our sponsor ad today is from newspapers.com. 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Well now we get to talk about a case study about using immigration records after 1906 and the research subject that we'll talk about is Burger Gustav Solberg. Burger Gustav Solberg was an elusive individual who was born in Sweden on 31 May 1895 to Jan Frederick Solberg, 1855 to 1921, and Anna Peter's daughter, 1861 to 1941. His family knew only that he immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. A family story says that he sent a letter asking his family to send some money so that he could buy a ticket and come home to Sweden. Instead of sending money, they sent a ticket, but the ticket was returned to them and no trace was found of Burger. Another family story tells of his mother looking for him until she died, even enlisting the help of the Red Cross Organization. The family notes that Burger Solberg was declared dead in Swedish death records. Wow, this is such a sad story but his family couldn't find him. While careful research and city directories and immigration records determined more about Burger's actions and provided a new place for research. Fitting with the story that Burger emigrated to the United States in 1920 was a passenger list that was found dated March 16, 1920. As a 24-year-old single male, he named his father as Jan Solberg of Forschaga, positively identifying himself as the research subject. His age of 24 was also correct. He would turn 25 in May of 1920, so all the information compared in this record to the known information correlates and agrees. The complete record gives the information dictated by the 1906 act. The SS Stockholm, passengers sailing from Gothenburg, March 3, 1920, arrived March 16, 1920. Burger Solberg, age 24, male, single, iron worker, can read Swedish, can write, last permanent residence Forschaga, father Jan Solberg of Forschaga, final destination, Massachusetts, Wooster, does not have a ticket to final destination. Passage paid by itself in possession of $100, not been in the US before, going to stay with a relative, Uncle Carl Holt, five Carl Stadt Street, Wooster, Massachusetts, intends to return to Sweden in two years, does not intend to become a US citizen. Five feet, seven inches, fair, blonde hair, and blue eyes, and that's what you would probably expect for someone from Sweden. So we can see that because of that 1906 act, there is a lot of information on people coming into the United States, and we have so much identifying information here. So some really important evidence, leaking burger, to city directory records of Wooster Massachusetts is that statement of his final destination as Wooster, Massachusetts, and that he was going to stay with his uncle Carl Holt of five Carl Stadt Street, Wooster, Massachusetts. And Burger gave a clue to his future intentions in his declaration that he was going to return to Sweden in two years and not become a US citizen. So Burger did make his way to Wooster by 1921. The city directory reveals his residence as 22 Lincoln, and he probably resided in Wooster just for the two years that he designated on that ship's passenger list, because the Wooster city directories of 1921 and 22 show him there, and he's still boarding at 22 Lincoln, and he is a laborer. So in trying to figure out what he was doing there in Wooster, we looked at a map published by the Richards Map Company in 1922, and it's one of those great maps that shows you streets, parks, businesses, and homes, and even has the names of the owners. So the exact place where he was living has Jay Gustaf's son as the probable owner of the building. So it sounds like maybe it was a fellow Swede. So why was he going to Wooster, Massachusetts, and when we are doing research on our immigrants, it can be really helpful to look at some historical context. I found an article titled "The First Swedes to Locate in Wooster," and it talks all about the city, which was located in the central part of Massachusetts, 40 miles west of Boston, and the article stated that the city produced machine tools, steel products, and many other things used in manufacturing, and it added that in Wooster in 1953, it had the second largest Swedish population in New England, with a greater Boston area having the largest. So this really helps us to understand the pull of this area for burger. This rapid growth of industry led to a great demand for workers, and so if you put this in context, 1920, where post-world were won, and things are really hopping in the U.S. with industry. And so we have all sorts of companies, Washburn and Moan wire mills, Morgan construction, American steel and wire, and several others are expanding, and they all needed skilled workers. So they welcome the Swedish immigrants. It was only natural the new arrival should seek employment in areas where they had previous experience and in factories where people from their locality in Sweden were already employed. Those who came from the still towns of Farmland usually went to work for the American Steel and Wire Company, and they settled in Quinsigamond, we've got a lot of interesting names here. In 1910, Swedes were at 30,000 in Wooster, one-fifth of the entire population of the city. So interesting, with all these Swedes coming from Burgers homeland of farmland to Wooster, he had to have heard of the cities and the possibilities for employment. And also in the 1920s in Europe, there was a severe depression following World War I, so they're wanting to come to U.S. and then go back with the money they've made. So interesting on that passenger list was this information he was going to stay with his uncle Carl Holt, and it had a specific address. So who was Carl Holt? The 1919 Wooster City Directory does list a Carl Holt at Five Carl's Dad, and this shows that he wasn't fictional. Perhaps Burgers had obtained that information about his name and address before his voyage. Could Carl Holt have been a con man who had promised the young man a get-rich-quick scheme or did Carl Holt sell or send Burgers his ticket? You know, we don't know exactly, but there was some connection here. Maybe this was the only person with an address in the U.S. that Burgers knew. But research found that he really was not a real uncle. So how we got the name and address is really unknown at this point. While another explanation involves the United States immigration laws of the time, with the flood of immigrants to the United States, the federal government began a quota system in the 1920s to cap the number of immigrants from specific countries. Preference was given to immediate relatives of naturalized U.S. citizens or those who had started the naturalization process. Perhaps Carl Holt had naturalized and using his name as a relative ensured that Burger Gustav Solberg's entry into the United States was accepted. Based on the evidence of the 1921 and 1922 city directories of Wooster, Burger likely resided in the United States for only two years before signing on as a seaman on the Danish steamer, SS United States. On July 4, 1923, the ship manifest reveals the expected departure date of 26 July, 1923, for Christians and Norway. Burger traveled between the U.S. and Sweden at least once more, but the last documented wage for Burger was that of 1926. Two Swedish records suggest a permanent emigration in 1926. First, an indexed Swedish church record positively identifies Burger, listing his name as Burger Gustav Solberg, Birth Parish of Kavantor, and Birth Date of 31 May 1895 in Nidra Ularan, Varmland. His parents are listed as Jan Frederick Solberg and Anna Peter's daughter. The church record states that Burger departed August 31, 1926 from Fort Shaga, Varmland. He is listed as a machinist traveling alone. Well, we have a second record from Sweden that provides evidence of Burger's intended emigration to Canada. This is a Swedish emigration register and it's dated 11 September 1926 at Lisberger Gustav Solberg's birth as 31 May 1895, so that correlates, it gives his age as 31, and his birthplace is North Olorud for Shaga Varmland. His destination is noted as Montreal Quibet, Canada, and he used to travel on the Burgans fjord first to Oslo, Norway, then to Halifax, Nova Scotia. So this is an example of one of those emigration registers from the home country that can really help us to correlate. When arriving in Canada, Burger completed another form with the following information. That his name was Burger, G. Solberg, he was 31 years old, born in Sweden, North Olorud's, and he was Swedish. He's not in Canada before, he intends to reside in Canada permanently and he can read Swedish. He paid his own passage, he's a general labor in Sweden, and he plans to farm in Canada. He's going to the CNR, Canadian National Railroad in Montreal, Quebec, and we have his mother, Anna Solberg of Fjaga, his nearest relative, and we have a passport number. It was issued in Carlstad in 1926. He has $98 to his name and he's traveling inland on the railroad. So the family had confused Burger with another Burger Solberg who was in booster in the 1930s census, and so research really needed to separate out these two men of the same name because the Burger Solberg that the family was looking for wasn't in the US. He was in Canada and so research could now go into Canada. Such a good example of two men of the same name, very similar birth, year from the same area, both working in the same profession in the same city. So it really takes a lot of research, a lot of correlation to separate these people that have very similar identities, but tracing his immigration back and forth between Sweden and the US and Canada really helped to place him as the correct person, and it's so great that we have more information in those records now that helps us. Yeah, and it's sad that he lost touch with his parents, you know, that he went up to Canada and then somehow just never talked to them about that. Right, it makes you wonder if maybe he died in Canada, you know? Maybe he didn't last long there or something happened. Exactly. But what a great discovery, and it can be so challenging, I think a lot of the time we create our own brick walls when we get mixed up with people, you know, the same name, but the wrong person, you know, that happened to me early on with one of our ancestors just following the wrong Welsh line into the wrong place in South Carolina. So it's easy to do that. And sometimes it's hard to even realize that you've done it. But careful research, like you said, can really help us find all the clues that help us find their true location and identity. Right. You have to do good thorough research. You can't just take for granted, you know, the two or three records you might have, especially if there are any red flags, some things that seem conflicting or don't quite add up. That's time to dig in and see if you can find more. And of course, sometimes they're just going to be those conflicts and we have no idea why perhaps Burger lied about his uncle Carl, but we can try to understand the context and knowing the laws and explaining how they were getting pretty picky about who they were letting into the country helps you to understand that. That's a really great tip. Well, thanks everyone for listening. We hope that if you have ancestors or people you're researching who immigrated at this time, that you'll be able to use some of these laws and historical context and this case study to help you broaden your research and find the records that you need. All right. Thanks everyone for listening and we'll talk to you next time. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our books, research like a pro, and research like a pro with DNA on Amazon.com and other booksellers. You can also register for our online courses or study groups of the same names. Learn more at familylockit.com/services to share your progress and ask questions. Join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our courses. To get updates in your email and box each Monday, subscribe to our newsletter at Family Lockit.com/newsletter. Please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. 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