2026-05-28    Discovering the Place of Origin: In family history research, few things are as exciting as discovering the town where an immigrant ancestor was born. But that discovery is a process that may take considerable time and effort. Genealogist Alice Childs lays out the steps to follow and provides a real-life case study of finding the birth town of an ancestor, from locating a New York marriage certificate to assembling naturalization and passenger records, to determining the origin village as Ozyma, Austria. For more tips and information on tracing immigrant ancestors, see Goal D1 in the United States page.