Here is a hypothetical research scenario for you to consider....

[UncleMatt]

Hey ALL,

Lets say you are researching a treasure legend in the interior of the United States, and discover someone had come to the treasure area looking for it in the past in the early 1900's. Further, lets surmise these people had connections with those who lost or buried the treasure back in the day, and that they came from European countries, like France or Spain. You have no names to work with at all, only the years they visited, and their country of origin.

Now then, do any of you think it would be possible to track down those people who came from the countries in question through immigration records? Or shipping records? or any other form of records the layman would have access to today? It would require you to start with a very large pool of names, and then through the process of elimination reduce them to the final names. (if that is even possible)

I'm curious, were foreigners in the first half of the 1900's required to disclose what US state was their destination? Of course, many people entered the country without being recorded, but if they came by ship from Europe, one would think there would have been records as they passed through customs.

Looking for informed input on this please. Yes, I know its a long shot. Just tell me if you think it could be done or not, and your reasoning or evidence behind your position.

 

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[kanabite]

hmmm sounds like a pretty tall order , i wish you luckEllis Island Records Search

 

[mdog]

Hey ALL,

Lets say you are researching a treasure legend in the interior of the United States, and discover someone had come to the treasure area looking for it in the past in the early 1900's. Further, lets surmise these people had connections with those who lost or buried the treasure back in the day, and that they came from European countries, like France or Spain. You have no names to work with at all, only the years they visited, and their country of origin.

Now then, do any of you think it would be possible to track down those people who came from the countries in question through immigration records? Or shipping records? or any other form of records the layman would have access to today? It would require you to start with a very large pool of names, and then through the process of elimination reduce them to the final names. (if that is even possible)

I'm curious, were foreigners in the first half of the 1900's required to disclose what US state was their destination? Of course, many people entered the country without being recorded, but if they came by ship from Europe, one would think there would have been records as they passed through customs.

Looking for informed input on this please. Yes, I know its a long shot. Just tell me if you think it could be done or not, and your reasoning or evidence behind your position.

If you don't have any names, I don't think you have enough to get started. They could have entered the country anywhere. You're best bet might be to start at the local level and maybe find some story related to the treasure legend that names the people involved.

 

[UncleMatt]

I know, it seems impossible. I was hoping someone might have had a suggestion that would have made it workable. I am still curious if foreigners were required to state their destination within the US on entry records in the first half of the last century. If I could somehow do a search based on destination, that might be the ticket, or at least help narrow down the list significantly.

 

[Smithbrown]

This website had a lot of detail from immigration and travel bu I think you now have to pay for the detailed information: Search Ancestry & Genealogy, Uncover Family History | findmypast.ie

 

[DDancer]

As a hypothetical, my opinion based on what I see is that, should you be able to tie links to people from the 1900's it would be the work of a lifetime.

The feasibility of this type of research is similar to that of creating genealogy trees only without the names and only the dates these "treasure hunters" conducted their activities. Said feasibility is very low in my opinion. Your research would be working entirely from third party sources and with no names you would have to pattern match the documented activities of persons at a time in history were such documentation is spotty at best or not yet available unless you go onsite and dig thru dusty tombs of records. One Might find a gem in the ruff if you bounce your research against newspapers of the day or bibliographies describing such activities. However such gems would have to be found by narrowing down your search to a defined geographic area. In the end you will need names to narrow your research field and seeing as treasures buried in the US can be spread pretty wide and far again I find it would be almost impossible.

Good luck. May the force be strong with you if you decide to give it a go.

 

[Springfield]

I know, it seems impossible. I was hoping someone might have had a suggestion that would have made it workable. I am still curious if foreigners were required to state their destination within the US on entry records in the first half of the last century. If I could somehow do a search based on destination, that might be the ticket, or at least help narrow down the list significantly.

If your people emigrated through proper channels with the intent of becoming citizens, there may be a paper trail - but you're going to need names to get your project off the ground.

Many folks then, like today, simply entered the country by whatever means was available for whatever reason they wished. In those days, people pretty much came and went as they pleased, using whatever names they pleased. No legal ID's, no facial recognition cameras, no questions asked. Seems to me that some foreigners with street smarts and enough pocket money would have little trouble digging up their ancestors' treasure in America, providing they knew where to find it.

 

[UncleMatt]

My only hope is that maybe some records remain from them traveling by ship to a US port from Europe and entering there, where records would have been better than crossing over from Mexico or Canada by road.

 

[AbTexEx]

If you know the area and the time frame you might look into records from local motels, hotels, lodges etc...

That is if they had no connections in the area when they were visiting and nowhere else to stay.


Surnames from France and Spain generally stand out from others.


Worked over 20 years for a company owned by a family in France.
The family name is a common household word in Europe.
Here in the U.S. most people can't even pronounce it correctly.




AJones

 

[captED]

ok, so you need at least 2 of 3 things. name,location and time period. so if you don't know a name then you need to know when and where. port of origin and port of call and when they might have left. without at least 2 of these i have never had much luck.

goodluck

 

[I Fish]

Hey ALL,

and discover someone had come to the treasure area looking for it in the past in the early 1900's. Further, lets surmise these people had connections with those who lost or buried the treasure back in the day,

When you say connections, do you mean related? If so, you could look at county records to find the names of the property owners at that time. That might give you a place to start.

 

[doc-d]

Only the years and country of origin…….
Your hope would be in whatever local paper trail was created in the area of interest……….
Official records, business records, bank records, newspaper reports of the area in question……….

 

[UncleMatt]

I have yet to figure this one out, and it may not be possible. The only chance would be to have access to a database with all immigration records from the appropriate time period that would allow you to search according to the US state they claim as their destination. If someone is familiar with immigration forms from say 1900 to 1932, and can tell me if there was a place to enter their destination within the US on those forms, I would love to hear about it. Special credit for actual photos of an example.

 

[Old Silver]

You might try looking for foreign names in census records for that time and place. Census were taken every 10 years-1900, 1910, 1920, etc.

 

[cw0909]

UncleMatt, what your looking for is a longshot, but since you have
a date range, and the area, maybe there was a write up about the
visitors in the local paper/s, the jpgs are about people returning
and the search terms (marked red) that i used, i just used france
and early 1900s, because you mentioned them
check the news archives at the state historical, university and
local libraries too


from 1917-1920 could be tricky because of ww1 as could 1898- 1903
the spain usa war, prob was a lot of folks in and out of usa because
of the wars, maybe you have a couple of better search terms to narrow
it down, HH




where i got the snips
Graham guardian., June 06, 1919, Image 4
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn95060914/1919-06-06/ed-1/seq-4.pdf
Graham guardian. (Safford, Ariz.) 1895-1923, June 06, 1919, Image 4 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

All Digitized Newspapers
All Digitized Newspapers « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

 

[UncleMatt]

I wish I had something else to narrow it down with! These people would not have been noted in any paper or media, as they were being secretive and not announcing their presence to the world when they arrived. They would have spent most of their time away from towns and communities as well. I appreciate the post though!

 

[cw0909]

just thought of something, those people knew of the treasure, stands to reason
mr. x, knew people from where they came from or mr x was from there too
maybe look at some data bases from there for mr x, that might give you some
names to work with