by George G. Morgan
It’s easy to get lost in the trap of simply looking at or for “the other side of the pond.” The desire to trace our ancestors back to the place of origin is one of the primary motivations for family history researchers.
Your search will include a wide variety of media, ranging from traditional paper documents to microform to digitized images in online databases and on the Internet. Diligence and patience are the major tools you will require, along with an understanding of what is available and where to look.
You have to understand that for each migration there were forces responsible for the “push” and the “pull” of immigration to a new location. Personal circumstances, historical events, social and financial influences, and natural disasters are all causes for our ancestors’ decisions to migrate.
These were the driving forces–the “push” –that compelled them to abandon the familiar in search for something different. Yet not everyone migrated of their own volition. Here are some reasons for migrating:
• Religious or ethnic persecution
• Natural disasters
• Famine
• Economic problems
• War or impressed
military service
• Political strife/turmoil/
oppression
• Following family and friends
• Adoption
• Slavery-forced relocation or resettlement
• Criminal incarceration/
deportment
• Not a first son
• Great financial opportunity
Other reasons for migration could include the desire to reunite with family members who lived in or had previously migrated to another location–or maybe even to escape from other relatives and family members. A father may even have banished a son for some misdeed.
Another reason to migrate might have been to serve in a military operation, as did thousands of European men who flocked to America to serve as mercenaries in the American Revolution and the U.S. Civil War.
Remember too that migration was sometimes done in multiple steps.
The Pilgrims first immigrated to the Netherlands and became more organized as a community before sailing to America. Our ancestors likewise may have immigrated to Canada because the ship’s passage was less expensive to Halifax than to Philadelphia, and then moved south into the United States at a later date.
It is important to study the history of both the place of departure and the destination in order to better understand the rationale behind your ancestors’ decisions to move.
All of these and more are reasons to make the move. However, you also must consider the draw to a new place. Historical and social timelines can often reveal details you may never have expected.
I sometimes just use an Internet search engine and type in either the word “timeline” or “history” (or both) and the name of the country, region, state, or province I’m researching. The search results often give me a great overview or specific details to help put my ancestors into perspective. Try it yourself and see what you find.
Put yourself in your ancestors’ shoes. There are great advantages to studying the geography, history, sociology, and anecdotal materials about the areas from which your ancestors emigrated and the places to which they immigrated. The perspectives you gain are immeasurable.
Happy Hunting!
George
© 2006 Copyright George G. Morgan. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any format is strictly prohibited without written permission. Contact George at aha@ahaseminars.com for more information.
This column is made possible through the efforts of the Questing Heirs Genealogical Society of Long Beach. For additional information about that society, go online and visit www.qhgs.info.
