Foreign Records

Once you being tracing your family tree, you will probably eventually reach an immigrant ancestor - the one who first came to America. When this happens, you should try to find every single piece of information that you can here in America before even thinking about researching over there - wherever "there" might be.

Records in America tend to be in English, whereas records in other countries may be in other languages that you can not read fluently, that is if you can read them at all. Remember, even if you speak that foreign language, the records may be written in an archaic form of handwriting using archaic terminology, making them very hard to interpret.

Depending on your ancestor's age upon arrival in the United States, and how long he lived here afterward, he may have generated more records here than in his country of origin. Records in the United States are often more accessible than those in foreign countries - unless those records were microfilmed and are, therefore, available through Family History Centers.

Additionally, family sources, both here and overseas, can often play a key role in solving your questions about your immigrant ancestor. Start by interviewing as many of your relatives as you can find here to learn about those living overseas.

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