In addition to the great wealth of information that can be found in church records, much can be learned of our ancestors' lives through the official government records which recorded their births, marriages, military service, naturalizations and deaths.

These papers often become more than simple legal documents. To see the signature of one's grandfather on a naturalization paper, in which he renounces his allegiance to the Emperor of Austria and chooses American citizenship, is moving---but far more so when his immigration manifest revealed that he entered his new country unable to read and write. How much practice was needed, after long days in the mines or mills of industrializing America, to confidently, or shakily, form the letters that made up one's name?

We will include census records and invite volunteers to trace the names of village immigrants in America. Examples of birth, marriage and death certificates will be provided as well as naturalization and military service records. All record more than a single event, often revealing family names, relationships and addresses. Eventually they lead to the fuller recording of a family's history as lives crossed from the old world to the new.