Hispanic Immigration to the United States

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Many immigrants have come to the United States from Hispanic countries. Some Hispanic immigrants arrived before and during the colonial period and many continue to arrive everyday. The resources on this page may help you in your search for the city and country of origin of your Hispanic ancestors.

Crucial pieces of information
Before you can begin research in the records of the country of origin of your ancestor you need to know a few crucial pieces of information:


 * Name
 * Name of the town and the country of origin
 * Approximates date(s) of birth, marriage, or death
 * Family connections - This would mean having enough information to identify the ancestor in a record because you know the names of his or her parents, spouse, children, or siblings.

Sources for place of origin
There are many record types that might give you that elusive prize, the name of the ancestor's home town.

Documents in the home
The following document types are just a sampling of the records you might find in your home or the home of an older relative that would provide clues about place of origin.


 * Birth, marriage, or death certificates
 * Obituaries
 * Journals
 * Photographs
 * Letters
 * Family Bible
 * Catholic Church records

Other historical records
The following historical record types might also contain that elusive piece of information about the town of origin of your ancestor.

Citizenship and/or naturalization records
For more information please read United States Naturalization and Citizenship.

Military records
Draft registrations are a good source for birth dates and places. Even if your male ancestor wasn't a citizen, he would have been required to register for the draft.

Social Security records
Check the Social Security Death Index to see if your ancestor was listed there. If so, you should consider ordering a copy of his Social Security Application. The application should give his birth date and place and may include the names of his parents. These records can bo ordered online from the Social Security Administration. Be sure to spend extra for the full copy as it will contain the most information.

Vital records
Marriage certificates and/or licenses and death certificates might indicate a person's birthplace.

Census
Census records can be used to help pinpoint arrival date and therefore look for arrival records. Keep in mind that the dates found in the census can be off a few years. Some census years there are columns that indicate citizenship status. This status may help you determine if there might be citizenship or naturalization papers to locate.

Spain
The ultimate destination for most Hispanic researchers is to trace their ancestry back to Spain. The majority of settlers in the colonial period came to the Americas from Spain. For those who came very early on there are a few websites and books with indexed information. The majority of this information comes from the Archive of the Indies located in Sevilla, Spain. While the records are not extant you may find information about immigrants who came between 1492 and 1790 in the following resources:

Portal de Archivos Españoles PARES has an online inventory of the holding of all the major archives and Spain and throughout Latin America. You may access the inventory of the Archives of the Indies through their website. Among the categories of the Archivo General de Indias or Archive of the Indies the following may contain information about early immigrants from Spain:


 * Casa de la Contratación 1492-1795
 * Catálogos de Pasajeros a Indias 1509-1701
 * Papeles de Cuba 1712-1872
 * Patronato Real 1480-1801
 * Ultramar 1605-1895

To search the PARES website, click on the words Búsqueda Sencilla (simple search) or Búsqueda Avanzada (advanced search).

Búsqueda Sencilla

In the field Buscar enter the name of the person you are searching. You can enter a date range to search in the fields desde (from) and hasta (until). You may also choose to search Todos los registros (all records), Registros digitalizados (digitized records), or Registros no digitalizados (records not digitized). Once you've entered your search criteria, clic on the word Buscar to initialize your search. Use the button Limpiar formulario to clear the search form.

Búsuqeda Avanzada

You can use the same options as the Simple search but you also have options to filter your results by Filtro por archivo (Archive), Filtro por signatura (Call Number), or Filtro por índices de descripción (Description Indexes).

Under the option Filtro por archivo you may choose to limit your results to just the Archivo General de Indias.