Last week, I wrote about the importance of finding the correct spelling of a surname before you can start searching in the home country of your ancestor. In my search for good internet learning sites on immigration, I rediscovered Genealogy.com: Online Genealogy Classes. Help on finding your ancestors' surnames is covered excellently, as well as a multitude of other help on immigration in the "Tracing Immigrant Origins" section.
Rootsweb Guide covers the topic of immigration in a number of lessons. What I like about their guide are the numerous links they provide for further investigation on each subject. Why U Can't Find Your Ancestor gives additional help with surname spelling problems. Tracing Your Immigrant Ancestors concentrates on ship passenger lists. Naturalization records can prove particularly helpful in locating the city of origin for your ancester. This topic is covered in their Pledging Allegiance: Naturalization Records guide.
Finally, familysearch.org provides a comprehensive research outline. To find the article on "Tracing Immigrant Origins", go to their Research Guidance. Click on "Research Helps". Then, choose "sorted by document type". Finally, click on "Research Outline" and scroll down to "Tracing Immigrant Origins Research Outline. It takes a bit to get there, but contains good information.
Next week, I will list some country specific help in tracing your immigrant ancestors.
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