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There is an abundance of help for those of us who wish to learn more about our immigrant heritage. Because I wanted to make little Anna's incredible journey come alive, I spent thousands of hours researching what she faced each day.

My book listing of Resources for Through Different Eyes shows a wide variety of information found in usual and unusual resources. I'm sure that other researchers have discovered other data centers I did not investigate. The following explains only the path I followed.

Common sources

On the web, Ellis Island and Genealogical Societies are helpful. Some of the latter groups seek your paid membership, but Ellis Island's Website has much free information. While visiting the Island, I walked the Great Hall imagining Anna and her godfather's frustration at being held there so long before entering New York City.

The History Channel sometimes shows just what you are looking for. During my research,  Ellis Island was broadcast; I purchased all three tapes. The Public Television series, The West, The Greatest Enterprise under God, was shown in 1997.  I was in the midst of analyzing railroads and Anna's long trip to Iowa at the time.

I found nothing of my ancestors in the Mormon Library records, but it is a vast resource to try. In a well-established Masonic Library I found my grandfather's name in the 1907 Farmers' Directory of Leading Farmers in Linn County, Iowa, printed two years before Jacob Kubesch (Kups) married Anna Mrkvička.

Historical Society Libraries and Museums

I spent hours at the Iowa Historical Society Library scanning microfiche of newspapers printed during 1889-1909. The New York Times informed me that it rained the day Anna finally left Ellis Island. Newspapers published at the time of your ancestors will tell you in fascinating detail what your family members were facing day to day--prices of goods they had to buy, political and worker unrest, weather problems, societal mores, government issues, world influences on the countries from which they came.

Most immigrants in America had relatives and immediate families still across oceans.  News about happenings at home was important to them.

Public Libraries

Public library books and encyclopedia entries revealed to me what little Anna faced in the early 1900s in the rural Midwest: keeping warm and processing food, inventions during that era, keeping clean, railroads and their depots, religion and government, farming at the start of the 20th century, the rise of feminism and the push for women's right to vote, leftover racism from the Civil War.

Aging family members

I discovered the name of the Anna's birthplace, a now non-existent agricultural village near Prague, from her only surviving brother, Joe.  My grandmother never told me the hamlet's name. Joe died two weeks after my visit.  Surviving seniors in your family can be valuable in your heritage search.  Use a tape recorder; make a list of questions to ask.

I suggest at my book readings that families have children ask five questions of older relatives at Holiday events. They can use the information for school projects; they can put together family stories of their own. Books don't have to be long or fancy.  Family facts collected in a binder can be handed down through generations also.

Military records

The name of the village where the Mrkvičkas lived was verified when I did research at the Camp Dodge museum archives in Des Moines. There, on the army records of Anna's brother, WWI Private Frank Mrkvička, was listed his village of birth: Velký Lunec. That matched what had been told me by 80-year-old Joe before he died.

Family photos

Buried in trunks and old albums are pictures of people no family members can any longer identify.  Often, however, there are dates and notes on the backs of snapshots. My mother was diligent with family photo albums, and she always put dates and identity on pictures. People used those old Brownie cameras a lot. Many took shots of gravestones, which give dates that you perhaps can locate nowhere else.

The Internet

This comparatively new communication tool provides countless sites with genealogical information. It can connect you to other people who are researching their families, and perhaps to long-lost relatives. A contact I made through the Web provided me the final piece of the puzzle as to which of the "Gilbert" brothers' families hired Anna away when she worked (for no pay) for an abusive woman who beat and allowed her little to eat.

Later that information was confirmed by an old postcard found in an aunt's things after she died. It was signed by the children Anna took care of on the "Gilbert" farm. Those two events saved me from making a serious error in Anna's story. My grandmother never referred to her employers by their first names when she spoke to me about them; I had been concentrating on the wrong "Gilbert" brother.

Land Plats, old Railroad maps

These items usually can be found in Historical Libraries and some Railroad Museums. I learned from such maps the logical rail route Anna took from New York City to rural Iowa in 1903; she had told me in very general terms about the route of her train trip--she "took a train from New York City, stopped in Chicago to find something to eat, and finally arrived in Iowa."  I was able to find out what trains were operating in 1903.

One problem with old Land Plats is that renters are not listed on them. Only owners' names are on the records, which leads us to census data.   

Census reports

These are extremely valuable when accurate, readable ones can be found. Unfortunately, some records have been lost in old buildings through the years through fire and flood.  I found that some census reports were put on microfiche, and then print copies were destroyed. If the microfiche was poorly formatted it is difficult and time-consuming to find the names you seek.

Journals, Diaries and Letters

If you are lucky enough to find old letters or diaries or journals in a trunk somewhere, read them carefully. Generations ago people were enamored with the written word, especially before radios or phones were available to the masses. It was important to read, and, for some people, to keep records of their daily lives. Farmers wrote on calendars about weather, the price of corn. Women often wrote of their isolated or social lives. Most of these items are lost to us, unfortunately.

Time Lines

Library Chronicles and Encarta and web encyclopedias have Time Lines, which I found quite useful. If you are not satisfied with the skeleton of a family tree and genealogy, bring family stories to life by positioning them within world events on a time line.

It crystallized Anna's era for me to read that in 1903, during her long trip to the Midwest, the Wright brothers flew their flying machine 120 feet at Kittyhawk; that there was an anti-foot binding edict in China just a year earlier; that the United States already had a Secretary of Agriculture, established the year Anna was born--1889; that when she entered this country the AFL union membership was already over a million, fighting for the rights of blue-collar workers; that in 1906 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 10-hour law for workers in factories and laundries.

You get the picture. It's amazing how one's heritage comes to life as you visualize  ancestors' daily challenges. Live persons emerge when names and dates are dropped into the vibrant societies within which they struggled to survive and succeed.

Caution- Dates and Recollections

I found that dates and recollections by family members were sometimes conflicting. Memories fade; old records are not always correct. I finally decided that I would gather all information I could find about my grandmother and her era. Then, when information didn't gel, I was forced to make educated guesses about some issues. That's the best a writer (and you) can do in your quest.  I wish you luck.