This is a genealogy question. I am wanting to know how I can find information ab

Question:

This is a genealogy question. I am wanting to know how I can find information about my great grandfather.?

My great grandfather came to the USA from Belgium but I do not exactly know when. I do know that he came here before the records of www.ellisisland.org Is there a website or source that could help me find out when my greatgrandfather came to the United States? Besides ellisisland.org I have information about my grandmother but no information about my great grandfather and grandfather as to when they came to the United States. Thank you for whatever you may send.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Belgian genealogy is very difficult. Ancestry.com and the Familysearch.org sites will be worthless. Belgium never centralized their records. Instead, they're all kept at the local level and the only way to find them is to know the town where your ancestors were born and then write to the city hall for copies of the records.

Ellis Island isn't much help because most Belgian emigration was between 1850-1880. For those records you need to check http://www.castlegarden.org . I'll warn you, those years aren't well transcribed yet. My own great-great grandmother was from Belgium and came over in 1876. Her records aren't online yet, nor are any of her relatives who came over in the 10 years around it.

The best resource I can give you is Georges Picavets' Belgian Rootsweb site. It's not comprehensive, but it's the best out there. The real solution is to go to Belgium and research in person. Source(s):
http://belgium.rootsweb.com/_br/team/pic... ancestry.com Ancestry.com One good Internet site is familysearch.org. It is a genealogy site provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is the largest available source to finding our ancestors. try starting a family tree on ancestry or genealogy.com or try to find a local agency that works with family genealogy. ask relatives also If you would like to edit your question and include your g/grandfathers birth year or age when he died, the location he lived in when he died, I am pretty certain someone will be able to help you, there's some really clever researchers that frequent this forum regularly. www.usgenweb.com it's a free site! Do you know his date of birth? And if your grandfather was born in Belgium consider his date of birth, it would be some time after. Search the passenger ships between his birth and when you know for sure he was here. If your grandparents were married in Belgium, It's possible your grandfather arrived a year before. Often the men came first and the wives and any children came the following year. This was so they could work and save for their passage and let them know exactly what each member would need to survive the trip. Food was not supplied! Hi if you could add his name and any info you have I would be willing to try and find some info for you.. There are alot of great genealogists that frequent this site so if you just modify your quesion you would get a better result..