Cuban Roots

One of the ladies who recently attended our "Introduction to Genealogy & Ancestry.com" workshop is tracing her Cuban heritage. She emailed me recently asking for some assistance on where to find records. It doesn't appear as though many records for Cuba are on Ancestry.com, which really isn't that surprising since they have been a very closed society.

So I did a little research to see if I could provide some guidance on where to look, and surprisingly enough there appears to be a variety of websites with information available, so I'm creating this resource page for anyone who will be tracing their Cuban roots.

Aside from Ancestry and Family Search, one of the first places we all should be going to is a GenWeb page. The USGenWeb.org project created a page for every county and state in the U.S., but there is also a WorldGenWeb.org page for every country. This is a great resource for all of us since we will eventually being looking for records in a foreign country. 

#1 - The CubanGenWeb page contains lots of information with links to Cuban genealogy clubs, archives, databases and more.

#2 - The University of Miami has a Cuban Heritage Collection which might be beneficial. It's possible that genealogy volunteers might be available to look up information for those who do not live in the area.

#3 - The Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami looks to be well organized with a lot of resources available. This would be a great resource to go to for guidance.

#4 - Florida International Universities Libraries has an online resource that they claim is the "Cuban equivalent" of Ancestry.com. It is a resource that has been created to help families of the Cuban diaspora research their roots. It contains an extensive set of family trees, civil records and sacramental documents.

#5 - Genealogy Stack Exchange is a site that provides genealogy resources for every country. It's also a place to post a question and receive help. This particular link goes to the Cuban resource page.

#6 - Geneanet provides a resource page for Cuba where you can click on one of the regions of Cuba to search for records.

#7 - A blog entitled Hispanic Genealogy has included links to two sources he has found valuable in searching for records. He's been sharing his search on his blog since 2007 which can be found by clicking here. Blogs can be very helpful in learning how to research a particular location.

#8 - Tobias History Research provides some advice and links to search, as well as information on church and military records.

#9 - The Cuban page on Genealogy Today contains links to many resources.

#10 - Find My Cuban Family includes information on Cuban genealogy communities, databases, digital collections, immigration, books, maps and more.

#11 - The Guide to Cuban Genealogical Research - Records & Sources by Peter E. Carr is another good resource for understanding how to search for Cuban roots.

#12 The Cuban DNA Project by Family Tree is a good starting point for understanding your DNA results.

#13 - The Genealogy Forum's Research in Cuba contains links and is a place to ask questions and receive responses from others who are researching in Cuba, too.

#14 - Kindred Trails page for Cuba contains links to various records.

#15 - Cyndi's List has a page of links to Caribbean & West Indies resources (in which Cuba is included).

#16 - Genealogy Wise is a forum where you can post questions and receive help from others.

#17 - The Cuban Club of Miami group and The Cuban Genealogy group on Facebook will be an invaluable resource. So whether you like Facebook or not, create an account just to take advantage of these groups. Every state and country has groups, and I'm telling you these groups are invaluable with their help and suggestions.

#18 - Books available at Amazon on Cuban history & genealogy research.

A quick Google search is all you need to formulate a list of available resources. This applies to all of us, no matter what state or country we're researching in. All of the records we need are not contained on one site. When we run into a dead end on Ancestry (our first choice), our list of resources will become invaluable to us, and may very well be the difference in whether we meet with success or not.

Immigration & Naturalization Records

We were very fortunate to have genealogist, Ann Mohr Osisek, speak at our May 23rd meeting on "Backing Up to the Boat" - Immigration & Naturalization Records. Her presentation was quite informative and entertaining, as she incorporated her witty sense of humor into it.

The following is a summary of  a couple of the key points she made in her presentation. For a printable copy of her handout, please click here.

#1 - Create a Timeline: She began by suggesting that the best way to stay organized in your search for an ancestor's records is to create a timeline of their life. This timeline should include the places they lived throughout their lives. A simple timeline will be a reference point in which to ensure that you're searching in the right state and/or county or country when looking for records.

#2 - All immigrants did not arrive through Ellis Island: There were many ports of entry into the United States. A listing of them can be found here at: National Archives Immigration Records (See Part 5 for all the ports of entry). On her handout she lists the different time periods of immigration and where the records might be found.

#3 - Naturalization forms & Passport Records are two forgotten resources: Naturalization records after 1906 contain quite a bit of information and most likely will reveal the name of the city and country an immigrant is from. Many immigrants traveled back to their home country at some point after their arrival. Passport records might also reveal an ancestor's homeland and a photo.

Where to Find Naturalization Records:

Before 27 September 1906 - check Federal, State, County, Local Courts

 After 27, September 1906 - check INS but also Federal, District, State Courts

Where to Find Passport Records:

National Archives Record Groups 59 & 84 - from 1791 to 1925

#4 - Find the year your ancestor emigrated from his home country: U.S. Census for years 1900, 1910, 1920 & 1930 include immigration year and citizenship questions.

#5 - Look for a passenger ship record: Some passenger ship lists can be found online, but many have not yet been digitalized. There are many books in genealogy libraries with the names of those included on the passenger lists. Leesburg genealogy library, as well as the Orlando genealogy library (located in the Ocoee Library) contain many of these reference books.

#6 - Learn the history: Read about the history of your ancestor's homeland to see why people were leaving during that time period. Learn more about the history of the town in the U.S. that your family settled in. The names and information about early pioneer families can be found in many historical records and books. 

#7 - Talk with living relatives:  Be persistent! Many family members are not interested but the more you ask, the more likely they will remember some information. Contact cousins or more distant relatives (DNA matches) to see if they have records or photos. They just might have the one record you need.

#8 - Don't give up! - Finding records is not easy. Many are not online yet, so you may need to order microfilm from FamilySearch.org or records from local & national state archives. Researching is a process that takes time and effort, so keep working at it.

Following is a list of books that Ann highly recommends to assist in your search and understanding of records that are available. Two of these books are located under Google Books (link is available below), while the rest can be found at local genealogy libraries:

* Locating Your Immigrant Ancestor by James C. Neagles

* They Came in Ships by John P. Colletta, Ph.D

* Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States by Christina K. Schaefer

* Passenger & Immigration Index by Filby & Meyers

* They Became Americans by Loretto Dennis Szucs

* Morton-Allen Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals (lists by steamship line, dates of arrival of all vessels from Europe to New York (1890-1930) plus Baltimore, Philadelphia & Boston (1904-1926)

A huge THANK YOU to Ann Mohr Osisek for an informative presentation and to the

  Mount Dora Library Association for funding her presentation. 

Polish Records - Case Study

This week I was assisting Sandy (a member of our group) in researching her ancestors from Poland. I am presenting this case study to you because it's applicable to everyone when searching for records outside of the United States. We were able to find records for them on Ancestry once they arrived in the United States, but no Polish records. In order to proceed it was necessary to do a little research to see how to search and where the records for Poland are located.

NOTE ~ ~ First and foremost, before you can proceed to search for records in Europe or other countries you will need to have found the town of origin for your immigrant ancestor (and preferably their parent(s) name(s)). If you don't know this information you will never know if you've found the right family line or not. In Sandy's case, her grandfather had told her the name, but she also found it on naturalization, birth and death records that she found on Ancestry. On her immigrant ancestor's death record we also discovered the name of her great grandmother's father. So armed with this information we knew where to begin the search in Europe. ~ ~

A GREAT starting point is the FamilySearch.org (Latter Day Saints website) "wiki" online genealogy records page. They have a "wiki" page for every county, state and country. It's an extremely valuable resource and a good starting point when the hints dry up on Ancestry.

There's two ways to find their "wiki" pages. One way is to go to: FamilySearch.org, hover your cursor over the "Search" button on the top tool bar. Move your cursor down to "wiki" which is the last item listed and click on it. Enter your county, state or country that you want to research. Or, the second way (and my favorite) is to simply Google "Polish (insert your city, state or country) Genealogy Records and click on the link to the Family Search wiki page.

In Sandy's case, I entered Poland and the "wiki" brought up a nice selection of links, as well as a listing of jurisdictions, research strategies, resources and tools.  It's a great primer on how to search for records that just might help you avoid the frustration of trying to figure out how to search for records in another country.

Click here for the Family Search Poland Online Genealogy Records page. 

Once you know the town and country where your ancestor was from, it's generally important to narrow that town down to the area, jurisdiction or state where that town is located today. For instance, her ancestor's city was once in the Kingdom of Galicia. It was also in Austria/Hungary at one time before ending up in the country of Poland. This information is not too difficult to figure out with the use of Google or any search engine of your liking. You're basically researching the history of your ancestor's city of origin or birth to see what state or jurisdiction it's located in today.

Image Source: http://www.lostshoebox.com/poland/online-records/

 She knew their city of origin was Zdziary, Poland. So a few Google searches helped us determine that Zdziary is located in the state of Subcarpathian today. Another Google search for "Polish Genealogy Records led us to the Lost Shoe Box website that contains Polish records. If you look at the map above, her region is in the lower southeastern part of Poland. It lists three numbers under that area: 3, 7, 12. To peruse the records for that area, she will need to click on those numbers listed below the map (see photo below).

Family Tree Magazine also has a page with articles and links to websites with Polish records, a guide to pronouncing your ancestor's hometown, plus much more. Click here to reach that page (scroll down to read the articles).

There is also a Polish Genealogy Group on Facebook that was extremely helpful to her research when we posted a question.

This information is a good starting point for Sandy to continue her family search, and is applicable when searching for records in other European countries, too.