How do you guys find italian immigration records?

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Thatgenealogykid
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How do you guys find italian immigration records?

Post by Thatgenealogykid »

I use the Ellis island site, but some aren't there. How can I find more?
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adelfio
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Re: How do you guys find italian immigration records?

Post by adelfio »

Researching Trabia, Palermo surnames Adelfio, Bondi, Butera, Scardino,Rinella, Scardamaglia

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TerraLavoro
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Re: How do you guys find italian immigration records?

Post by TerraLavoro »

Sounds obvious, but Ellis Island is only for the port of NY.

Boston, New Orleans, Montreal, Philadelphia were also major ports of entry, even smaller cities like Providence had some direct arrivals.

Knowing the arrival city will help, obviously.
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113yearslater
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Re: How do you guys find italian immigration records?

Post by 113yearslater »

Seconding the Steve Morse site -- it allows for far more flexible searches on partial names, towns of origin, that sort of thing. The records are indexed in a computer by someone staring at a document that could be over a century old, trying to make out unfamiliar names in spidery old-style handwriting, a process that is prone to error. Sometimes one typo can make it almost impossible to find someone. NONE of my direct family members' passenger manifests are indexed correctly. The Ellis Island Gold form search gives you a bit of flexibility to work around those sorts of mistakes.
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johnnyonthespot
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Re: How do you guys find italian immigration records?

Post by johnnyonthespot »

I use ancestry.com for most of my research. It is not free, but for one-stop shopping it is hard to beat.
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My hobby is finding things. Having found most of my own, I am happy to help others find theirs. PM me! :)
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