Tracing Immigrants Arrival Periodicals

Genealogical, lineage society, religious, and historical periodicals are most helpful when you know where an immigrant settled and his or her ethnic group. Genealogical and historical societies usually publish periodicals about the people in the geographic area or ethnic group they cover. Family organizations often publish newsletters with immigrant information.

Periodicals often reprint various types of material, including abstracts from original sources. Periodical articles include—


 * Passenger list abstracts.
 * Naturalization list abstracts.
 * Sketches about early pioneers.
 * Ethnic group background information.
 * Church record abstracts.
 * Genealogical sketches.
 * Pedigrees (sometimes called ahnentafels)
 * Query lists

Genealogical society periodicals are a good place to publish queries for information about immigrant ancestors. There may be a fee for this service, especially for nonmembers. Also check indexes to previous queries and answers.

An excellent list of most English language periodicals is—


 * Bibliography of Genealogy and Local History Periodicals With Union List of Major U.S. Collections. Fort Wayne, Ind.: Allen County Public Library Foundation, 1990. (FHL book 973 D23b.)

Many periodicals index their own articles. A major index of over 2,000 English language and French Canadian family history periodicals is the—


 * Periodical Source Index (PERSI). Fort Wayne, Ind.: Allen County Public Library, 1986-. (FHL fiche 6016863-64.) Now available and easier to use at HeritageQuestOnline. Also being made available through FindMyPast.

To find periodicals and available indexes, see the “Periodicals” section of the portal or research article for the state, province, or country where the individual settled. Also check the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under the topic PERIODICALS. To find periodicals for family and surname organizations, check the Surname section of the catalog. In addition, look for ethnic groups in the Subject section under headings like—


 * JEWS - PERIODICALS


 * IRISH - AUSTRALIA - PERIODICALS


 * HUGUENOTS - FRANCE - GENEALOGY - PERIODICALS