July 17, 2027
For those whose ancestors arrived in the United States later than about 1850, it’s usually easy to trace their lines back to the original immigrant. For many of us that’s not
enough. We want to travel even further back in time with our relatives.
To do that, we must leave U.S. research and head overseas. For me and many others, that means European research. We need to “cross the pond” and delve into records from other countries. It can be daunting. This is especially true if our family has lost most of its ties with their countries of origin.
With so many resources available online, research in European countries is doable. That’s true even if you don’t speak the language. Between translation sites such as Google Translate and online tutorials and dictionaries, the records are understandable.
The only real roadblock to European research is location. You need to know where your ancestors lived. Knowing that an ancestor came from Sweden or England is not sufficient. Research in Europe relies heavily on church records. Those records were kept at the local parish level. Many of them are digitized, but they are not indexed by name.
This means you will have to figure out a place of origin for your ancestor before you can access European church records. If you’re lucky, someone in your family will know where the ancestors came from. I have had good luck writing to distant family who I discovered online on Family Search and Ancestry trees. My branch of the family may have forgotten where great grandpa came from, but another branch frequently knows.
It is often necessary to search various U.S records, as well. Passenger lists and naturalization records sometimes include place of birth. Passenger lists from the Ellis Island era almost always include specific places of origin. Naturalization records from the 20th century are the most likely to give an ancestor’s place of birth.
Other documents such as obituaries and cemetery records may also be useful. For example, the cemetery where my great grandparents were buried kept detailed records of the people interred there. In the case of my great grandparents, this included the village in England where each was born.
Many immigrants travelled with other people from the same neighborhood. If you can’t find where your ancestors came from, check the neighbors. They may have come from the same parish or village.
Ancestry and Family Search both have large collections of European church records. There are also country-specific sites such as Arkiv Digital, Find My Past and Scotland’s People. These sites deal with Sweden, England and Scotland, respectively. There are also sites for other countries. Family Search’s Wiki is a good place to learn what digitized church records exist for a specific country.
Church records are available as far back as the 1500s in some parts of Europe. Researching them can add generations to your family tree. Crossing the pond to find them is worth the effort.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larmer County Genealogical Society