Does anyone know what years the records started with the INS. My grandparents emigrated in 1903 and 1904. Did emigrants have to file something with the INS when they arrived or did they wait until the got to their final destination? I found my Grandfathers naturalization papers in the county he lived but I been told my grandmother became a citizen by being married to my grandfather in 1906. I've had no luck in finding her on the Ellis Island website. Her surname was Zsivnostka and is spelled different in everything I have found for her. I've spent hours at the Ellis island website using every imaginable spelling. My aunt swears my grandmother came through New York because she remembers the story grandma would tell about how whoever was supposed to meet her there wasn't there when she arrived and she got lost. Finally a police officer help her by taking her to a group of emigrant women who were from Slovakia. Thanks for any help, Penny

This http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/history/articles/oview.htm tells you all about when the INS started, including when people had to register upon arrival and when they instituted the policy. "Under the 1891 law, the Federal Government assumed the task of inspecting, admitting, rejecting, and processing all immigrants seeking admission to the United States." Prior to that time, it was state and local laws that applied and they varied. In 1891, the INS began to mandate that the shipping companies complete manifests and provide them to the INS at arrival. The INS then used these lists to process the arrivals. Read this http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/summer_1998_women_and_natu ralization_1.html for reasons why women were not enumerated on manifests. When I run into problems locating passengers, First, I look for a phonetic equivalent, then I look for a transcription error (the old-style "s" looks like an "f", old style "T" looks like a "S" for example)Here is my list of letters that look alike: Lower case: a=c=e=i=l=o=r=s=t=x, i=l=e=t, f=s, g=j=p=q=y=z, h=k, m=n=u=v=w=ii=iu=ui=ni=in=r When this fails, I find a relative on the census, look for fellow passengers on the same manifest from the same village, note their surnames. Then I search for others of these surnames. Quite frequently they travelled with others and didn't travel alone, especially during these time periods. Have you also taken advantage of ellisislandrecords.org 's "No Exact Matches...1) search on alternate spellings of the last name;" or after a search, click on EDIT Name and Gender: under "passenger search profile (bluegreen bar on left hand side"? These give you more variations you haven't thought of. Bill Tarkulich -----Original Message----- From: Penny Vanderhyden [mailto:penvan@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 3:26 PM To: SLOVAKIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: INS records Does anyone know what years the records started with the INS. My grandparents emigrated in 1903 and 1904. Did emigrants have to file something with the INS when they arrived or did they wait until the got to their final destination? I found my Grandfathers naturalization papers in the county he lived but I been told my grandmother became a citizen by being married to my grandfather in 1906. I've had no luck in finding her on the Ellis Island website. Her surname was Zsivnostka and is spelled different in everything I have found for her. I've spent hours at the Ellis island website using every imaginable spelling. My aunt swears my grandmother came through New York because she remembers the story grandma would tell about how whoever was supposed to meet her there wasn't there when she arrived and she got lost. Finally a police officer help her by taking her to a group of emigrant women who were from Slovakia. Thanks for any help, Penny ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

Give us her given name, surname, estimated place of birth, her destination and ethnicity(or what language she spoke) and her age at time of immigration. Some of us can take a peek at the manifests and might come up with something. Bill Tarkulich -----Original Message----- From: Penny Vanderhyden [mailto:penvan@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 3:26 PM To: SLOVAKIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: INS records Does anyone know what years the records started with the INS. My grandparents emigrated in 1903 and 1904. Did emigrants have to file something with the INS when they arrived or did they wait until the got to their final destination? I found my Grandfathers naturalization papers in the county he lived but I been told my grandmother became a citizen by being married to my grandfather in 1906. I've had no luck in finding her on the Ellis Island website. Her surname was Zsivnostka and is spelled different in everything I have found for her. I've spent hours at the Ellis island website using every imaginable spelling. My aunt swears my grandmother came through New York because she remembers the story grandma would tell about how whoever was supposed to meet her there wasn't there when she arrived and she got lost. Finally a police officer help her by taking her to a group of emigrant women who were from Slovakia. Thanks for any help, Penny ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237