Genealogy-Secrets.com

The United States is a nation of immigrants, a rich tapestry of heritage and cultures from all over the globe. New York genealogy in particular can tell us a complex and interesting story about the history of modern America. 

If it wasn’t for centuries of immigration, we all would be speaking Cherokee. Sadly, instead of cooperating with the Native Americans (also called First Nations), the native tribes of North America were systematically wiped out. Most of the records of any Native American genealogy went with them to the grave. Part of wiping out the tribes was through intermarriage with Native American women.

One of the aspects of New York genealogy is that they record the names of most of the immigrants who helped shape America – and even listings of the local tribes, including the Seneca.

Ellis Island

Millions of immigrants had to be shipped to and processed at the now historical sight of Ellis Island, in New York City. This is where immigrants often literally and metaphorically began new lives.

Many of the Ellis Island immigration workers got fed up with trying to pronounce, let alone spell, the tongue-twisting surnames. They often suggested – and at times, without help from the immigrant – that the newcomers change their names to something “more American”. This makes New York genealogy a little tricky if you don’t also have boat passenger records, to pair up the native or foreign name to the ‘American’ one.

Websites

It has taken many decades of research and documents to make up the various free New York genealogy websites available for Americans today. Many websites that center on just New York genealogy will include many links to national genealogy sites to help further your search if your ancestors moved out of New York State (which many millions did). Some are part of the American History and Genealogy Project, mostly made up of volunteers pooling information to fill in gaps.

Since New York was spared a lot of warfare or natural disasters, many of the records of immigrants and Native tribes in the State are still intact and are all being transcribed to computer databases. Much of this information is in public records, which is free to anyone to look up. This information includes annual censuses, birth certificates, death certificates, newspaper archives, military records, prison records and cemetery information.

Without New York genealogy, a lot of records valuable to a national understanding of who we are and what we shouldn’t forget would have been forever lost. The old censuses, cemetery tombstones and Ellis Island paperwork have been given the respect of the valuable historical documents that they are.