Looking up immigration records is one of the most intriguing parts of genealogical research. You'll learn how long your family has been in America and what places they came from. By noting the date, you'll be able to research what the political, social and economic climate of their motherland was like to figure out what factors may have pushed your family's move to the US. You'll be able to look back to your countries of origin to see what family stayed behind and you may begin tracing back your lineage within that country for even more startling surprises!

To begin your free search of online naturalization and immigration documents, start at www.home.att.net/~wee-monster/naturalization.html, where resources are listed by state. These records usually include first papers, which is where an alien renounces foreign citizenship to become a US citizen. Before 1906, immigrant information included the person's name, country of birth or allegiance, application date, the port of arrival and a signature. After 1906, family genealogy information also included the applicant's age, occupation, personal description, current address, last foreign address, the vessel and the port from which it embarked.

To accurately locate immigration records you must know the state in which the naturalization occurred, the name of the petitioner, the country of origin, the city and county of residence at the time of naturalization and the approximate year of birth. You can still find your family's genealogy information if you don't know all of this information, though. A good place to start looking is at one of the Family History Center locations, which can be found here: www.familytreemagazine.com/upload/images/PDF/fhcdirectory.pdf. After 1906, you will be looking for petitions with the Immigration and Naturalization Services. Prior to 1906, an immigrant could walk into any local courthouse and fill out a form to settle. Many of these records have been indexed and microfilmed, which you can look up by searching the county archives.

Websites like www.footnote.com ($59/year) and www.ancestry.com ($155.40/year) have large collections of naturalization and immigration records if you don't want to go through the hassle of tracking them down for cheaper. At these family history genealogy websites, you can also find birth records, death certificates, newspaper articles and various other records all in one place, which will make your record searching much more compact. Running from library to library and following paper trails isn't for everybody. You can then use the site's family tree maker functionality to create keepsakes for relatives and for yourself.

Technorati Tags: Family Tree, Immigration Records