Immigration and Naturalization Record

Unless they are of American Indian decent, nearly every person living in the United States can trace their family roots to someone who immigrated to the United States, whether it's a grandparent or an ancestor many, many generations back. As such, a genealogy researcher often finds himself at some point searching for an immigration and naturalization record. Heirlines Family History and Genealogy, a professional genealogical research company, provides information about what these records are and their purpose in genealogy history work.

What is an Immigration and Naturalization Record?
While often lumped together, an immigration record and a naturalization record are actually two separate records. However, the two types of records are often considered collectively because they provide information about two events that are quite related to each other: an individual's immigration to the United States and his or her eventual gaining citizenship.

An immigration record is the official record of an immigrant's admission into the United States. Over the years, these records have taken different forms. During the greater part of the nineteenth century, passenger or ship lists served as immigration records. In the later part of that century, records were made of immigrants who entered the U.S. across the Northern and Southern Borders. In 1924, visas became the official records and twenty years later, Alien Registration records and files also became recognized as official immigration records.

While Immigration records document a person's entry into the country, naturalization records document the granting of U.S. citizenship. The Immigration and Naturalization Record Service (INS) holds all naturalization records from September 1906 on.

Purpose of Searching an Immigration and Naturalization Record
One of the primary genealogical advantages to finding an immigration and naturalization record is to determine an individual's or a family's place of origin. While an ancestor's country of origin is often easily deduced based on his or her name, an immigration and naturalization record often pinpoints an exact city or region. So while the surname Lombardi suggests Italian heritage, an immigration record is likely to indicate that your great grandfather emigrated from San Giuliano, Italy in 1893. Whether you have German ancestry, Irish genealogy, Spanish genealogy, Northern Ireland genealogy, French heritage, or ancestors from any country, checking an immigration and naturalization record will provide you with vital knowledge that will help you continue your research further because you'll learn where you need to look next.

Heirlines Family History and Genealogy
Heirlines is a professional genealogy company that provides genealogical research for genealogists at all stages in the ancestor research process. In addition to their general Research and Analysis packages, Heirlines provides several specialized services such as lineage society application research, paleography and translation, scholarly lineage compilation, and specific records searches.

One of the possible specific records search services is an immigration and naturalization record search. If you have a specific ancestor who immigrated to the United States from the early 1800s to 1920, the certified genealogists at Heirlines will search for him or her in Passenger and Naturalization Indexes, their associated lists and records (when ancestors are identified in the indexes), general census records (when necessary), and other useful sources.

Contact Heirlines today for a free consultation and to find out more about their genealogical research services.