Russian Immigrants to Kentucky?

Question from Richard

WHERE CAN I FIND ANY INFORMATION...
...concerning the family name Cawn, some of whom settled in the state of Kentucky; near Barbourville, Pineville, Corbin area? Believe they were Russian immigrants. I'm searching for their Russian names, also.

Olive Tree Answer: Hi Richard. I waited to respond to your question, hoping you would send more details as requested - such as a time period! You haven't told me if your family settled in Kentucky in the 1800s, 1900s or.... whenever.

You also haven't told me what sources you have already consulted. So I can only give you a very broad generic answer, and that is to consult census records. I use Ancestry.com for USA Census records but you may prefer another method.

After you have found the family in all applicable census records (assuming they arrived after Census records began in 1790), then you can start your hunt for their origins in Russia.

Separating Family Lore from Facts

Carrie asked:

I am having trouble linking my Great Grandfather to His father and further on. I know my grandpa's name is Stephen Babinec (alternate spelling is Babinecz), and that his father is Andrew Babinecz and I also know they came over from Hungary on the Pretoria ship. But for some reason, no matter how hard I try I cannot figure out beyond them. ...the main problem stems from a hand-written note my grandmother (or my great aunt) wrote and the information does not match what I have found. The information that I have found has been taken from official documentation. So, either I am reading the letter/note as being from the wrong person or just completely misunderstanding it. It is possible too that the person who wrote it may have also made a mistake.What is your opinion as to how I can obtain this information?

Olive Tree Answer: Carrie - It's very challenging to try to sort out family lore. Sometimes when we research we discover that family "facts" are actually myth OR they are slightly off OR they refer to some other branch of the family entirely! So if your hand-written note from your grandmother or great-aunt does not contain any sources, I would trust your own research.

For example, my uncle always swore his grandmother Vollick was "born in Elmvale Ontario". He said that was what he overheard as a boy listening to his mother and aunts talk. However my research found that his grandmother was born in Seaforth Ontario (in an entirely different county than Elmvale) BUT the family moved to Elmvale when she was young. So sometimes that family lore has a grain of truth to it and you should never discount it completely without checking further.

If your hand-written note has sources to back up what it says, then I'd track those sources down to verify or disprove what is written.

As for other avenues of research, I see that in the 1920 census on Ancestry.com your Stephen's father Andrew says he has his first papers (PA is noted, which means First Papers). Then in 1930 he says he is naturalized (NA is noted) The 1900, 1910 ,1920 and 1930 census identify citizenship status, with notations showing the individual was an Alien (AL), or had started the Naturalization process (PA) or had his final papers (NA).

You may want to hunt for his naturalization records as they may provide an exact birth location and other details. Footnote.com has Naturalization Records from NARA

Also since he naturalized after 1906 you should see a notation on the passenger list beside his name, which may guide you to the court where he naturalized. An immigrant who arrived after June 29, 1906 could not naturalize until the government located their immigration record (a passenger list). Petitions (not the Declarations) after 1906 have information that has been verified and matched to an immigration record. A certification of the immigrant's arrival record was a required part of the process and this should be noted beside his name on the passenger manifest.

For a Resource Guide to naturalization records, what you can expect to find, where to find them, and alternate sources of finding those important years (immigration and naturalization) at http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/

Finding an Immigrant Ancestor in Census - Be Creative with Spelling!

Jan asked me:

My G-Grandfather was born in New York State in August 1856, and married my G-Grandmother in 1885. I haven't been able to trace him any further back, but did find an Ellen Guilfoyle (with a son John) immigrating to NY in 1849 (with 5 other children), a widow. How can I figure out if there's a direct connection when I can't find Ellen or any of her children in any US censuses after arrival?

Answer: Hi Jan, you have a challenging puzzle ahead of you. I am not sure why you mention a son John with mother Ellen arriving in New York in 1849 as you say your g-grandfather was born in 1856 in New York. You didn't give me your great grandfather's name so I am slightly confused. Is your great grandfather's father John and his grandmother Ellen?

Since I didn't have enough detail from you to help you figure out if there is a connection with Ellen Guilfoyle and your unnamed great grandfather, I've done what I hope is the next best thing. I have found the family in the 1850 census. I'll explain how I did it, then you can have the fun of looking for them in 1860, 1870 and 1880.

Variant Surnames

The surname GUILFOYLE is one of those that can be spelled many different ways. If spelled phonetically (as it sounds), you never know how it might be written down on official records. So you must be prepared to search creatively, that is, with different spellings such as Guilfoyl, Guilfoil, Guilfoile, Guilfole and so on.

Using Wildcards in Searches

You should learn to use wildcards wherever possible, and to do that you need to read each site's Search Help for their specific search box. They might use an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?). You may have to enter 3 characters first, then a wildcard. You may have to enter one character then a wildcard.

Census Records

Having said that, I used Ancestry.com to search for your family in the 1850 census records. Ancestry uses 3 characters than an asterisk to represent any number of characters. Thus Guilfoyle can be searched as Guil* or Gui*.

I used Guil* and decided to look for Cornelius, the youngest on the ship (I have to add here that it would have helped me tremendously to have the names and ages and name of ship for that 1849 sailing rather than trying to find it myself. I needed to know the names and birth years of Ellen's children in order to hunt for them in the census)

Searching the child rather than the parent

I chose Cornelius because Ellen can be recorded as Nellie, Nell, Helen or Hellen and could be much more difficult to find. Cornelius is a bit less common a name. So I searched for Corn* in case he was called Corny or his name recorded as Cornelis. The beauty of wildcards is it allows for spelling variations or errors.

That's my long answer. :-)

Success!

The short answer is that the entire family is in Poughkeepsie New York indexed as Guilfoil in 1850. Have fun and be creative when looking for them in the next census!