Genealogy \

We have a thread on fiction, and one(s) for reference books, but none for folks writing about their own experiences with ancestor tracking, so I thought I'd start such a thread. I've mentioned the terrific My Sixteen earlier, which is sort of reference, but with examples/anecdotes of the author's own search.

I've been meaning to recommend Shaking the Family Tree by Buzzy Jackson for a while now -- so, here it is!

I enjoyed Collecting Dead Relatives - an amusing guide to doing your family history!

I read Shaking the Family Tree and loved it. I think I have Collecting Dead Relatives. I'll have to check!! enjoy

I'll have to check out that one, too!

Buzzy Jackson spoke at the NGS conference this year. She was very interesting. If her book is half as interesting as her keynote address, I'll be in for a treat when I get around to reading my copy. Maybe next month!

I've just finished Collecting Dead Relatives, which I read in an evening. The author was somewhat humorous, but the book is very dated, really from another era (published in 1987) - much emphasis is given to using the U. S. Mail, both for queries to officials, and for writing queries to cousins for family information. I wouldn't advise going out of your way to pay for a copy; fortunately, my library had one, donated as it turned out by the local genealogical society!

I'm wading through Ted Gup's A Secret Gift, a combination of history and genealogy based on a suitcase of letters left by his grandfather and on the author's interviews with the letter writers and with members of his own family. Not a quick read but expertly investigated and well written.

Might anyone have any idea how turn-of-the-century immigrants could have emigrated to the US from Norway without going through New York?

All of my grandparents came to the USA from Norway just over 100 years ago, and though we can trace segments of both branches of my family back to Denmark in the 1300's ... we have no idea how they reached the USA. No doubt it was by ship, but there is no record for any of them at Ellis Island. I know. I looked.

Somehow I seriously doubt they swam the Rio Grande.

I have ancestors who came in through Canada; you might look into that.

Yep, check Canada, and Baltimore too.

New York was by far the largest port, but not the only one. As mentioned earlier, Canada was how many came through to the US. Sometimes called the "St Alban's Lists", these passenger lists cover crossings from Canada into the USA anywhere from Maine to Washington State, with Detroit being the most common "port of entry", even though they usually crossed into the States via railroad.

And, in addition to Baltimore, ships arrived in Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Galveston (TX), Seattle, just to name a few. I'd suggest finding a library in your area that has a subscription to Ancestry.com, which has many of these passenger lists online.

NARA has an excellent guide on immigration: http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/. John Colletta's book They Came in Ships (see http://www.librarything.com/work/387335) is worth mentioning as a resource on immigration as well. I'd also be negligent not to mention Steve Morse's site: http://stevemorse.org/