Immigration with Dr. Colletta

They’re Coming to America:
Immigration Records

They came to America; for freedom, for land, for self-determination. Our ancestors came to this place for many reasons, but they all made the same trip to get here. Our featured speaker, John Philip Colletta, has spent many years studying the emigration and immigration patterns our ancestors left behind. John and our guest speakers will be talking about passenger lists and other records that document the passage to America.

Midwest Genealogy Center, brochure

Certain repositories and genealogical centers have a reputation of offering workshops that are worth exchanging household chores and grocery shopping for a $55.00 registration fee to sit, listen, and ask questions. The Midwest Genealogy Center, the largest public genealogy library, located in Independence, Mo., right outside Kansas City, is such a repository who hosted They’re Coming to America: Immigration Records.

I find that many family genealogists do not have the opportunity to go to conferences, so it is a treat when conferences are held at local genealogy centers. It not only gives locals a chance to network with other family genealogists, it allows the participants to be dazzled by the depth of information of featured speakers like Dr. John Colletta, PHD whose presentations Passenger Arrival Records, 1820-1957 and Passenger Arrival Records, 1820-1957 Advanced Problem Solving were worth the sacrificing of weekend chores.

Along with Dr. Colletta’s informative presentation the two days conference gave the registrants information on Colonial Immigration and Colonial Land and Servitude presented by Beth Foulk, and Jennifer Audsley-Moore from the Central Plains Division of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) shared information on Immigration Records emphasizing the process of the Declaration of Intention and Naturalization records. A wonderful treat was had by all when author Rodney Staab gave us a preview of his unpublished works on Galway, Galway to America: Enlistment Records, Migration History. (I wish I were a publisher, this book is needed!)

Now that the weekend is over…the household chores are still waiting on this cloudy Monday morning and my refrigerator is still void of food, but my information bank is brimming with newly acquired knowledge of immigration and naturalization processes!

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