Excerpted from The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, edited by Loretto D. Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking, Chapter 13, 'Immigration: Finding Immigrant Origins' by Kory L. Meyerink and Loretto Dennis Szucs.

1952: The Immigration and Naturalization Act brought into one comprehensive statute the multiple laws which governed immigration and naturalization to date: reaffirmed the national origins quota system; limited immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere while leaving the Western Hemisphere unrestricted; established preferences for skilled workers and relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens; tightened security and screening standards and procedures; and lowered the age requirement for naturalization to eighteen years (66 Stat. 163).

The McCarren-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act extended token immigration quotas to Asian countries.

1953-56: The Refugee Relief Act admitted more than 200,000 refugees beyond existing quotas.

Visas were granted to some 5,000 Hungarians after the 1956 revolt. President Eisenhower invited 30,000 more to come on a parole basis.

1954: Ellis Island closed, marking an end to mass immigration.

1957: Special legislation admitted Hungarian refugees.

1959: Castro's successful revolution in Cuba began the emigration of refugees.

1960: The United States paroled Cuban refugees.

1962: The United States granted special permission for the admission of refugees from Hong Kong.

1965: The National Origins Quota System was abolished, but the principle of numerical restriction by establishing 170,000 hemispheric and 20,000 per-country ceilings and a seven-category preference system (favoring close relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens, those with needed occupational skills, and refugees) for the Eastern Hemisphere and a separate 120,000 ceiling for the Western Hemisphere was maintained (79 Stat. 911).

The Cuban refugee airlift program admitted Cubans to the United States under special quotas for the next eight years.

1970: The Immigration Act of 1965 was amended by President Nixon, further liberalizing admission to the United States.

1972: Congress passed the Ethnic Heritage Studies Bill, encouraging bilingual education and programs pertaining to ethnic culture.

1976: The 20,000-per-country immigration ceilings and the system of preference system for Western Hemisphere countries was applied, and separate hemispheric ceilings were maintained.

1978: The separate ceilings for Eastern and Western Hemisphere immigration were combined into one worldwide limit of 290,000.

1979: Congress appropriated more than $334 million for the rescue and resettlement of Vietnamese "boat people."

1980: The Refugee Act removed refugees as a preference category and established clear criteria and procedures for their admission, reducing the worldwide ceiling for immigrants from 290,000 to 270,000.

The so-called "Freedom Flotilla" of Cuban refugees came to the United States.

1986: Comprehensive immigration legislation legalized aliens who had resided in the United States in an unlawful status since 1 January 1982; established sanctions prohibiting employers from hiring, recruiting, or referring for a fee aliens known to be unauthorized to work in the United States; created a new classification of temporary agricultural worker and provided for the legalization of certain such workers; and established a visa waiver pilot program allowing the admission of certain non-immigrants without visas.

Separate legislation stipulated that aliens deriving their immigrant status based on a marriage of less than two years apply within ninety days after their second-year anniversary to remove conditional status.

1989: Adjustment from temporary to permanent status of certain nonimmigrants who were employed in the United States as registered nurses for at least three years and met established certification standards.

1990: Comprehensive immigration legislation increased total immigration under an overall flexible cap of 675,000 immigrants beginning in fiscal year 1995, preceded by a 700,000 level during fiscal years 1992 through 1994; created separate admission categories for family-sponsored, employment-based, and diversity immigrants; revised all grounds for exclusion and deportation, significantly rewriting the political and ideological grounds and repealing some grounds for exclusion; authorized the attorney general to grant temporary protected status to undocumented alien nationals of designated countries subject to armed conflict or natural disasters, and designated such status for Salvadorans; revised and established new non-immigrant admission categories; revised and extended through fiscal year 1994 the Visa Waiver Program; revised naturalization authority and requirements; and revised enforcement activities.[p.453] Important clues about religion, naturalization, length of residence, arrival and property in the old country.

After death records, seek out the records of other vital events such as the immigrant's marriage and births of children. Vital record entries for marriages and births were kept by both church and civil authorities. Other local original records include a wide variety of record types. Use census records, court records, and land and property records to establish where an immigrant settled, his or her occupation, neighbors, and other information.

Voter registrations are not available for every city or county in the United States, but when they are, they can be valuable sources of immigration information. Typically the registrations (usually in list form) are kept at the county level and provide the full name, address, birth date, birthplace, and, for naturalized citizens, the naturalization court and date (figure 13-5). Many lists will note the number of years the voter was a resident of the state and county.

Employment files and voters' registration records may give the date and court of naturalization, port and date of arrival, ship, and country of birth. These records are created as a result of residence in the United States.

By studying a combination of records it is usually possible to estimate an immigrant's year of arrival in the United States. Even when an immigrant's census or naturalization records do not provide a specific arrival date, noting the dates and places of birth of the immigrant's children in census records, or tracking urban dwellers in city directories may help determine the immigration date. Look for clues to these dates in places the individual or family first settled and in land purchases.