Immigration: The Greatest Genealogical Challenge, Part Three: The Earliest Arrivals

 

A Clovis projectile point created using bifacial percussion flaking (that is, each face is flaked on both edges alternately with a percussor)

Recent discoveries of a mammoth butchering site in New Mexico have pushed back the date that humans arrived in North America to 37,000 years ago. This date obviates the need for the traditional "Bering Strait" theory long held by North American archaeologists. See Kortsha, Monica. 2022. “New Mexico Mammoths Among Best Evidence for Early Humans in North America.” UT News. August 1, 2022. https://news.utexas.edu/2022/08/01/new-mexico-mammoths-among-best-evidence-for-early-humans-in-north-america/. It also opens up the possibility that some of the inhabitants arrived by boats.

Now, as a genealogist, one of the major challenges to research focuses on the immigrant. Almost all the history of North and South America begins (and ends) with European immigrants. However, it is historically clear that by the time of the official date for English arrival in North America about 1602, North America was already the home for other European settlers and a host of Amerinds who had been on the continent for tens of thousands of years. The earliest European settlements in America were established by 10th Century Vikings, who arrived to find a hostile reception from the Native Americans. See Weiner, Eric. 2007. “Coming to America: Who Was First?” NPR, October 8, 2007, sec. Books. https://www.npr.org/2007/10/08/15040888/coming-to-america-who-was-first. Although we have no way of knowing if previous waves of immigrants were met with hostility, it is historically well established that every successive wave of immigrants has been met with hostility from those who came before.

Of course, the real challenge is that we run out of records long before these early waves of immigrants. The earliest records in both North and South American are in Spanish/Latin. If you do a general search for early genealogy records, you will see that most of the responses talk about records after England established colonies. But Spanish language records go back more than a hundred years earlier than those in English. For example, the Procesos del Santo Oficio de México, 1522-1820 begin about 100 years before the Pilgrims came to Massachusetts. In addition, St. Augustine, Florida was first settled in 1565. I can't stop here however, without noting that the oldest continuously inhabited town in North America is Cholula, Mexico established between 800 and 200 B.C.  Here is a photo of Cholula today.

By Jan Harenburg - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61915208

Why would anyone want to know this? Here is a good example from a later date. 

Do you happen to know when Kentucky became a state in the United States of America? How about June 1, 1792? Do you know when the first European settlement was established in what is now the State of Kentucky? How about Fort Harrod in 1774? By the way, Harrison, Kentucky was formed on December 21, 1793, from portions of Bourbon and Scott Counties. Would it surprise you to know that both of these entries in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree have no sources attached?

It is always a good idea for genealogical or any other kind of research, that you verify the date that settlement occurred and compare it to the date of any claims to occupancy. In the case of Harrison County, it was formed after Kentucky became a state and so if any records exist for either of the two couples in the image above, you will have to start looking in either Bourbon or Scott Counties. 

For European settlers in North and South America, you always need to look for the earliest settlement date. Some states are simple, such as Utah in 1847, unless you tend to ignore the original inhabitants. Another example is Tubac, Arizona, established in 1752. Sometimes the dates of first settlement get confused with the date the town or city was incorporated. My family on both sides comes from a small town named St. Johns, Arizona. There used to be a sign outside of the town that said, "Founded 1874." But the town actually began in 1864 with the establishment of a bridge and settlement on the Little Colorado River in 1864. Now most of the references say the town was established in 1880. There is no substitute for historical research when you are looking for your ancestors.