No matter where your ancestors come from, there is something you should do soon. Either travel to the site of the original neighborhood where your immigrant ancestor first settled or write a letter to the people who currently live on that street, regardless of surname, asking if they remember your relatives who once lived there. You may find at least one person still living who remembers either the immigrant or subsequent generations.

The other day my NJ mother-in-law, Em, received a letter from a man who was researching the history of their common ancestor from West Pittston, PA, a coal mining town. The immigrant was born in Wales in 1840, emigrating to PA in 1870. She passed the letter on to me. The researcher and I each had info that the other didn't (always good to write to all family members, young or old, to see what they know).

I shared an article about the death of the immigrant that was printed in the Lehigh Valley Coal's Employees' Magazine in 1921, that said he was 30 when he emigrated from Wales in 1870. It was written by his foreman at the coal co. and tells all about his early life in Wales and why he emigrated, which he had talked about many times. Sometimes people other than relatives know a family's history, or can present a different perspective of the family.

I visited the address that is given in the article and also found cemetery tombstones, which enabled me to send for records. Em remembers going to visit her grandparents at this house in the 1930's as a girl. Her father had moved to NJ in the early 1920's. Her grandfather died in 1943, so visits to this town stopped before my husband was born. Great aunts and uncles were spread out by then, so he only knew of 2 or 3 (of 12).

The most interesting part of the trip was that we decided to knock on doors in the neighborhood where this family lived from 1870 to 1951 to see if any elderly people were still around who remembered them. We found one elderly lady who did remember Em's grandfather, the son of the immigrant. He lived 1872-1943. His old neighbor described him as "a character" who used to go from door to door on New Year's Eve and take a drink with each family on the street. Then he would walk a wire between two buildings somewhere at the factory that was at the end of the street. He was the one who blew the whistle at quitting time.

With the interview with the neighbor, the tombstones, the surviving family archives found in Em's attic, Em's memories, and data collected from other relatives in the family, a story develops that will be far more interesting to future generations than a list of names and dates. The neighbor was also able to shed some light on a family tale about the house being haunted -- an Indian massacre on that site it seems. The local historical society may have more to share on this.

Leave no stone unturned. Write, visit or call EVERYBODY, relatives, old neighbors, cemeteries, archives holders, churches, local historical societies, etc. the sooner the better. And always let everybody everywhere know that you are the family historian. People will automatically send you things whenever they come across something while cleaning the attic or someone else who is doing research.

Debora L. Hill owns and manages the Pallante Center for Italian Research (PCIR). It is a network of native Italian researchers based in various locations throughout Italy and Sicily and also includes a network of microfilm and onsite researchers in the USA, covering the New England and Mid Atlantic Regions, and Florida.