Finding immigration records for family from Croatia 1905
I think I've searched the New York immigration records as best I know how. I have names, dates and places, but no actual sources. Also...spelling names from Croatia in 1905...a headache! Mary, Marica, Marika...so many choices.
The wiki wasn't much help either, but that could be me as a beginner in searching records.
Suggestions welcome,
Carol
Best Answer
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Is it possible that they arrived someplace other than New York? A few years ago, someone on another forum found my elusive relative's arrival in Philadelphia, and Baltimore was also a common eastern port of arrival.
Wherever you're searching, try to be flexible about what you consider to be the same name. Mary and Maria are the same thing in different languages, and Marika is a diminutive of it -- and a search for "Mar*" will match any of them. Also, it can help to concentrate on given names rather than surnames, because passenger manifests are incredibly difficult to index: the handwriting is crabby, the image quality is often low, and the names come from nearly every different language on the planet. The chances are basically zero of any particular page having been indexed by someone familiar with every language/culture represented on it. This means that the index is much more likely to get the given names right than the surnames, because there are a lot fewer of the former than the latter.
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Answers
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Thank you so much...all good avenues to re-explore. Very appreciated!
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And don't limit your search to the US. Consider they might have entered through Canada and then come overland into the USA. In addition to the East Coast ports mentioned, at times, New Orleans was also a popular entry point.
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Yes...the New York info may have just meant east coast. I'll search some more.
Thank -you.
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