Ten Best Sources for Determining Your Immigrant Ancestor's Town of Origin

Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A.
Dec 16, 2020
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Content

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Welcome
2m 09s
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Speaker's Introduction
54s
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Introduction
5m 31s
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Ten Record Sources
14m 00s
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Passports
15m 20s
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Long Shots
2m 46s
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Confirming Place Names
16m 17s
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Summary
5m 29s
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Announcements / prizes
10m 14s
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Questions / answers
18m 06s

About this webinar

Determining your immigrant ancestor's exact town of origin is the key to successful research across the pond. In this webinar, learn about the best US sources that might name your ancestor’s town or village, and how to prioritize your search and set expectations for tracking down key records in foreign repositories.

About the speaker

About the speaker

Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A., is a freelance writer, instructor, and internationally recognized lecturer specializing in Eastern European research and nonfiction writing. She is the author of 11 books, including the award-winning Three Slovak Women
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  1. Legacy Family Tree
    4 years ago

    A super great webinar.

    A unique topic, with lots of detailed information and resources. Thank you!

    Always great!

    Always informative!

    Another great webinar! Thank you!

    As always, great content and excellent delivery. Thank you Lisa!

    Brilliant1 i GOT A LOT OF WAYS TO LOOK AT MY bRITISH aNCESTORS WHO MIGRATED IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES. THANK YOU!

    clear and very useful

    content was good. I like Lisa Alzo presentations. She is so thorough

    Enjoyed hearing Lisa’s helpful presentation. Wonderful 10-page handout with lots of information to follow-up on.

    Enjoyed the examples Lisa posted, all the information was very helpful. THANK YOU

    Enjoyed. Very informative.

    Even though my current problem is domestic, the research tips, etc. were still helpful. I wrote down research avenues to pursue based on your webinar. Thanks so much.

    every minute was informative, useful info

    Excellent !

    Excellent as usual!

    Excellent content, presentation and syllabus/handout. Thank you!!

    Excellent information & info for beginners to intermediate to ? I always learn something on the Legacy webinars. Lisa is a wealth of info and presented really well and organized well.

    Excellent information and illustrations

    excellent information and very organized presentation

    Excellent information for those of us who have Eastern European ancestors. Lisa is a very knowledgable genealogist.

    Excellent Lisa!

    Excellent material

    Excellent presentation! Thank you so much!

    Excellent presenter but this subject does not fit into my research.

    Excellent topic-speaker- and the handout is a goldmine!!

    Excellent webinar. Lisa always does a great informative webinar wirh lots of tips and resources.

    Excellent! !

    Excellent! I’m Slovak so I especially appreciated some of the Slovak examples/ words you used. Thank you for offering this webinar.

    Excellent! More Lisa Please!

    Excellent!!

    Fantastic and well structured information. This process can easily be applied to other countries and research issues.

    Fantastic.

    Reply
  2. Legacy Family Tree
    4 years ago

    Gave me hope I might find more details.

    Good content

    Good examples used. More basic than I anticipated but background & context was often useful. thanks.

    good info, but hard to apply to my early 1800 brick wall ancestors

    good news

    Good Q&A session

    Good webinar

    Got some good ideas to help find that town of origin of an elusive Slovak ancestor. Always LOVE Lisa Alzo presentations. Bring her back again!

    Great

    Great info! I’m a new member and this was my first webinar and I really enjoyed it! thanks

    Great information and help to understand how to use so many resources!

    Great information!

    Great information. Can’t wait to start using what I learned today. Thank you Lisa

    Great information. Thank You Lisa

    Great presentation. Lots to think about and go check. Thanks.

    Great presenter. Thank you.

    Great review of how to be a good researcher. Always enjoy Lisa’s webinars.

    Great suggestions.. I am not sure how many non-US attend your webinar. Perhaps add a few Canadian resources?

    Thank you for all the work on the syllabus

    Great webinar

    Great webinar…as always!

    great, so much information!

    Great, thanks so much from Australia

    Her examples are way too current for my research.

    hope these ideas help me find my ancestors place!

    I enjoyed the webinar and found it very informative.

    I have a lot of searching ahead of me

    I have used many of the resources noted and have solved problems by doing so. I learned of a couple of new ones here that I’ll be using. Thanks!

    I look forward to someday when there will be a similar webinar on Ireland

    i think her speed was perfect. not too slow, yay!

    Interesting topic

    interesting, good tips

    Interesting. My family is one big brick wall but perhaps this will help. Fraternal organizations in particular might be a source o=for finding downland of origin back in Ireland of my grandmother’s Cousin Jimmy. My 100-yer-old mom is all that’s left of her small family and has shared as much as she could with me, but my grandmother’s mother died young, new stepmother chucked my grandmother out, leaving Nana so sad that she spoke almost never about her mom. All I had to go on was a 1.5 obit c 1912.

    It seemed very helpful. However my ancestors arrived in the late 1600’s to early 1700’s. Not much help to those earlier arrivals.

    Learned a few new resources that I was not aware of, enjoyed the presentation.

    Lisa always does a great job! Great information! Thanks!

    Lisa Alzo always does a great presentation.

    Lisa Alzo puts together great webinars. I will be looking for the town of origin in Germany for my paternal great-grandparents, and maybe this time I will find it. Thank you.

    Lisa does such a thorough job preparing her webinars. I never thought about researching fraternal records until Lisa included this resource in today’s webinar.

    Lisa gave at great presentation as usual. Loved the 10 page handout, lots of helpful information. Thank you! : )

    Lisa introduced me to some document types that I had never considered.

    Lisa is a great speaker.

    Lisa is always a delight. One cannot help but learn somethin new every time. Thank you , Lisa

    Lisa is always a wealth of information. My father’s ancestors came from villages near her ancestors so it’s always helpful for the Czech/Slovak info.

    Lisa is an outstanding speaker. I always learn so much from her webinars.

    Lisa is very knowledgeable and I always learn something new from her. She is an excellent presenter!

    Thanks for making today’s webinar available free to an appreciable audience.

    Lisa provided lots of good resources that will come in handy in my research. Thank you very much!

    Lisa was a wonderful presenter and very personable to help with all our questions. She was very thorough and helpful to list many resources to locate our ancestors. I am so excited to try them and hopefully find information in France. Thank you so much and have a wonderful holidays.

    Lisa, as always, is incredible.

    Lisa’s webinar was very helpful, as she always is.

    Reply
  3. Legacy Family Tree
    4 years ago

    Lisa’s webinars are always worth watching.

    Looking forward to re-listening to this webinar to ensure I don’t miss anything and check out the new information.

    Lots of good info, clearly presented.

    Lots of good information. Thank you.

    lots of helpful tips.

    Lots of resources I have not tried! Can’t wait to dive in!

    Lots to digest. Looking forward to studying the handout

    Love Lisa’s courses, webinars, etc.!!! Thanks for offering this webinar! 🙂

    Love when you have graphics for examples

    My problem is from relatives in the 1700s and early 1800s – wish there had been more discussion about that. Thanks!

    Of general interest even though I don’t have an interest in that area of the world.

    One of the best.

    Outstanding presentation, well-paced with logical and clearly explained categories. Thank you!

    Presentation was excellent. The handout is superb.

    professional

    She had several places to look that I hadn’t thought of, which I appreciate.

    she is so knowledgeable

    She is the most informative and interesting genealogist on the planet!!! Gotta luv her.

    She seems very knowledgeably about eastern European records – not my research area but general tips always useful.

    So good!! Great ideas.

    So much information, so little time!

    So much wonderful information!

    Some great suggestions!

    Such an important research aid to find the place of origin in order to do homeland research.

    Thank you – lots of great resources. I shall definitely check them out.

    Thank you – I’m anxious to look into some of these resources.

    Thank you and have a good holiday

    Thank you for the excellent presentation and especially for the most helpful handout.

    Thank you for the webinar, it was very informative.

    Thank you so much for the very useful information!

    Thanks Lisa!

    The handouts are very addition to the toolbox, thank you for the in-depth information provided.

    The speaker was wonderful.

    The webinar has given me new thoughts to take another look at my German ancestor who came in 1767 into Philadelphia. One ancestor arrived in 1639 and I may never know for sure. I always say if a webinar helps you find one more clue it was worth it. The presenter was very organized and knowledgeable. I am glad I took the time to attend. I look forward to attending more webinars in 2021.

    The webinar title did not flag that the content would be primarily Eastern European. Not my area of research, but still some helpful suggestions.

    The webinar was great.

    This was a GREAT webinar!! Thanks so much for all of the information!

    This was a very informative webinar. LOTS of good information and resources which I appreciate and can’t wait to use.

    This was very informative to me as. I appreciate the information and links given. Will definitely watch again when available.

    Useful, but I still don’t know any place of origin other than German.

    Reply
  4. Legacy Family Tree
    4 years ago

    very good

    Very good content and presentation. Thank you.

    Very good presentation- topic & speed of presentation; neither fast nor slow.

    Very good resources

    Very good webinar content!

    Very good. Thank you!

    Very good—amazing syllabus–10pg of goodies!

    Very helpful tips but mostly of value if researching ancestors who came in the 19th and 20th centuries. Not much help finding place of origin of those who came in the 18th century as mine did when records are scarce.

    Very helpful, good reminders to broaden our searches.

    Very helpful. Could really use more specific instruction on Lithuania. I find Slovakia is much easier to research than Lithuania.

    very informative

    Very informative

    Very informative & comprehensive info – Lisa is always great! Thank you!

    Very informative and well done

    very informative, still searching for where my great-grandfather came from in Germany–records I’ve found just say Germany.

    Very informative, Thank you.

    Very informative. A lot of resources I would have never thought about.

    very interesting

    Very Methdical and great webinar!

    Very nice job. Thank you . easy to follow and keep up.

    Very nice syllabus.

    Very relevant and inspiring. Knowledgeable presenter.

    Very useful!

    Very well done – I learned a bit more.

    very well done…wish I had family from that area.

    very well organized and specifics on researching.

    Well done! So much great information and this definitely gives me a few ideas for a couple of ancestors who have been tough to trace prior to their immigration! Thank you so much.

    What a handout!! Thanks so much for showing us so many actually documents. Wonderful slides. Merry Christmas to all. Thanks for a great 2020.

    Wish she had mentioned other British Isles suggestions besides Ireland. Good basic info.

    Wonderful information regarding findings ancestors place of origin especially in Eastern Europe . Lisa Also is a fabulous presenter…

    Wonderful overview of strategies to find one’s immigrant’s origins.

    Wonderful presentation and very good syllabus.

    wonderful so full of helpful information.

    Wonderful webinar on finding ancestor’s town of origin.

    Wonderful! Thanks for the great details and information. Very solid, practical, easy to understand method– Thank You Lisa

    WONDERFUL!!!!

    Would like information on people who arrived in this country prior to 1820 covered.

    Reply

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