Hi Sue,

I'm not Tricia (I'm another Sue), but I've been doing genealogical research for a long time. It IS addictive, isn't it?

You didn't mention which site you've been searching for your grandfather's immigration records. Ancestry.com ( a paid subscription site) and FamilySearch (free) are two of the biggies in the field. IMO, a subscription to Ancestry.com is well worth the cost.

If your grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in 1900, it's very likely that the record was filmed--you just have to keep on searching the indexes till you find it. Try different possible spellings of your grandfather's surname (remember to use the Swedish version, not the Americanized version, of his name). Use wildcard searches (see web site for details). Try switching his first name and surname in the search box. If the first name or surname is very unusual, you can try entering just that name and omitting the other (perhaps combine with country of origin and/or birth year). When you obtain the naturalization record, it will probably give the name of the ship and the exact date of arrival; you can then search for those items,in combination, and scroll through the pages manually till you find your ancestor's name (it may have been indexed incorrectly, but you will probably be better able to recognize it). Incidentally, not all immigrants came through Ellis Island. He may have arrived in Canada and entered the U.S. through a Great Lakes port. Keep an open mind about the possibilities.

I agree that the 1910 arrival may have been a return from a trip back home to Sweden. Is it possible that he already had a family and returned to bring his wife and children here?

It's extremely *common* to have discrepancies in birth dates in different records. There are many reasons: for example, the census taker may have asked the person's age and then incorrectly calculated the birth year; the person answering the census questions may have been a family member who gave incorrect information; the person may have "fudged" the date because he thought it favorable to appear younger or older.

Good luck on your search!

Sue

Welcome to the community of genealogy addicts. Mtnester, the other Sue, has given you great advice. I will just add one idea: when you have conflicting information, compare the reliability of the sources. Census information is notoriously unreliable.
You have a lot of dates for your grandfather's birth. Only one of them came directly from him (if it is true that WWI draft registrations were written by the registrant -- I don't know about that.) So if he wrote it, and if (can be a big if) he knew his birth date accurately, he was born in 1879.

Thanks Sue and CC! I am using ancestry.com - I had a knee injury recently and have been stuck having to keep it elevated. I started nosing around the site with the free trial and have become obsessed. I found an old letter indicating that my late mom attempted to do research back in the day when one had to write embassies for information, but never got very far. She never discussed this with me. It sounds strange, but I suddenly feel like it's almost my duty to try and complete this task for her, in her memory.

He didn't marry until well after he arrived here, so I know that's not the case. But he still could have been traveling with someone else with a different last name. Swedish naming conventions at the time have made it very difficult to identify people. And the spelling issues are also a challenge. I'll keep plugging away with alternate spellings and give wildcard searches a try.

CC - I just went back to his draft registration and I think you're correct! The writing and signature, which appears to have been done with a fountain pen, have such a distinctive look that I assumed the same person had written it all. But now I can see slight discrepancies (letter formation, connection between letters) between his signature and the other spot where his name appears. So someone else may have filled out his birth date!

Thanks for the great tips!!

This post was edited by goldgirl on Sun, Aug 11, 13 at 12:19

My great grandfather emigrated from Sweden in 1879 and my great grandmother in 1880. Both entered the country in Boston. There are no records from Boston because there was a fire. I don't know all the years that were impacted by the fire, but maybe the year you relative first emigrated.

Hi, it's me - Tricia.

Great advice. I agree about the birthdate. Birthdays were not celebrated like we do today and many immigrants lived in countries where vital records were either not kept at all or were sketchy, at best. Church records are baptism dates - not usually birthdays. Result - many immigrants simply did not know when they were born. So, because it was required info they made a date up and, sometimes, didn't remember what they had put on each different form.

Then, to further confuse the situation many immigrants were not literate or spoke dialects using just phonics and each person from the same village spelled the same word differently. Now, add in the problems on the other end in the US (lack of ability to understand foreign languages, poor literacy rates, equally poor spelling) and mistakes were more the rule than exception unless your immigrant came from an English speaking country.

I agree to check other points of entry besides Ellis Island. Remember, to a non-English speaking person Ellis Island meant nothing. But, over the years it became the place most people associated with "immigrants" so they said that is where they were processed. T'aint always so. Even if they write Ellis Island on their official paperwork. My own grandfather is a good example. All of his official paperwork read Ellis Island. He told everybody Ellis Island, including me. I spent 10 years looking for him. Nadda. Hired the National Archives to search. Nadda. I'm a contact person for the German-Russian Historical Society for the village of Norka. Got an email one day - from a women searching for one of my aunts who immigrated with my grandfather. She said, "Ellis Island? Gee, that's funny. My aunt always said they arrived through Portland, Maine." With the correct point of entry - Grandpa was easy to find. Fifteen years old and towing behind 3 younger sisters. Sometimes, there no better genealogical research than dumb luck. :)

I also think a membership with ancestry.com is a good investment if you're just getting started. But, I warn you - BE CAREFUL! People are idiots. They just copy what somebody else has written with no further research on their own. So, mistakes get passed on and on and on and on. LOTS of them. I use whatever I find on ancestry.com as a clue, nothing more, until I've confirmed the info by independent resources. Also, the Mormon church site is notorious for mistakes. So much so I could not with good conscience even recommend using their data bank. But, if you do - proceed with caution. My goal is always 3 separate confirming documents saying the same thing. And, I get copies if possible. I've got tens of thousands of hard copy records. I set an annual budget for vital records and such because it does get expensive.

I had my second book, "Thunder on the Steppes, a genealogy of ______________", edited this past spring (while we were rebuilding from Sandy). I was especially nervous because I've written a novella inside the book to bring my German-Russian ancestors to life for my grandchildren. My first attempt at fiction. My editor loved it and said I should seek a publisher believing it has a broader audience than immediate family. I'm thrilled. First though I need to publish the entire genealogy and not get sidetracked. I'm so close to being finished - just got to sprint those last 200 meters and cross the line. It's taken over fifteen years. At that point, I'm going to call my genealogy project finished. Genealogy is never truly finished but after nearly 3 decades of research and two books each exceeding 800 pages and going back to the mid-1200s it's as complete as I'm going to take it. I'll leave it up to future generations to carry on.

Have Fun!

/tricia

Sue (Goldgirl), even if he did not fill out the draft registration, he was there, and he was providing the information, and he signed it. Still a much more credible source than any census.

Sometimes the recommended skepticism about the census can lead you astray, though! I'd read lots of stuff about how immigrants might say someone was born here when they weren't. So when I saw a child in the 1850 census born well before the Irish potato famine, I figured this was an example of that, because of course I knew all my Irish ancestors came because of the Famine. No. That family did not, and that child was born here. So, the moral of the story is to question all of your assumptions.