Locating your immigrant in the census

After locating the Alien File for my immigrant of concern, Joseph Regenye, I next turned to locate him in the United States Federal Census.  He stated that he arrived in the United States in 1901, so I sought him with renewed vigor in the 1910, 1920, and 1930 census.  Using his own last name, Regenye, turns up no good matches.  Immigrant ancestors can be very difficult to locate in a census.  We can imagine that his accent was too thick to be understood fully or that he changed the spelling of his name to reflect his neighborhood influences or many other reasons.  His first child was born around 1908 in New Jersey, so I was really looking for a family.  I managed to locate the growing family for three consecutive census years by searching for a child and a birth year.  The reported age of an adult can vary in the census.  A child's age should be more accurate.  A five year old would not be reported as 17, but a 50 year old man could be listed as 35 or 65.  A precise year of birth for "William" with no last name will limit the number of matches to a more manageable number.  If Joseph is in the 1900 census, it will be difficult to determine an exact match because he would be without his wife and children.
The most recent addresses I had were from the 1940s in Union County, New Jersey, so that is where I started for the 1930 census.  I found the family at the same address that Joseph used on his 1940 Alien Registration Form.  I did not have success locating the family in Union County in 1920 or 1910.  A shaking leaf in my Family Tree Maker alerted me to a christening record for one of the children in Newark in 1909.  So I transferred my census search from Union County over to Essex County and found the family in Newark in 1910 and 1920.

Here is the Regenye family in 1910, 1920, and 1930.

1910 Federal Census
26 Aleya [Alyea] Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Indexed as Reganr, Regane, and Regans at Ancestry.com

1920 Federal Census
94 Barbara Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Indexed as Rigner, Rizner, and Bigner at Ancestry.com

1930 Federal Census
2024 Ostwood Terrace, Union, Union County, New Jersey
Indexed as Regney and Regnery at Ancestry.com

Obtaining an Alien File

Last week I wrote of my visit to the National Archives in New York City and the instruction I received on Alien Files.  I located an individual of interest in the online index and requested a copy of the file last Tuesday evening.  On Wednesday, the NARA office in Kansas City, Missouri contacted me with additional information from the file, including a place of birth and date and port of entry to the United States, to verify that they had the correct file.  (This information did not actually verify anything; rather, it was such facts that I was hoping to discover.  This verification would be useful, though, for common names.)  For just $15, one week later I had in my mailbox the copies of the file.  The contents of this particular file were the two pages comprising the Alien Registration Form filed in 1940.  Other files may contain a lot more documents and information, but I still received a wealth of information from these two pages, including:

-Date and place of birth
-Entry date into the United States
-Ship name
-Physical description and marital status
-Current address
-Occupation and name and address of employer
-Signature

Alien Registration Form filed 1940 for Joseph Regenye.
Part of his Alien File available through the National Archives.

Page 2 of the Alien Registration Form.

DNA: WEIRD need not apply

OpenSNP is offering free DNA testing kits from 23andMe to increase the genetic database beyond people who are WEIRD.  This is an acronym that stands for White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.  I did not know that this was the name for what I have been noticing.  Most of my genetic relatives are just like me, and I did not suspect this was because we are all related.  I probably have genetic relatives all over the world in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  Yet they do not show up in the database at 23andMe.  I suspected that their absence was not evidence that they were not related, but rather that they did not have the means or interest to undertake DNA testing, and this article provides me with a more formal name for this situation.  The limited subject range also permeates areas beyond genetic testing.

I am working on the results of a lady who submitted her kit to 23andMe through their Roots into the Future project, designed to gather data on African Americans.  She currently has 46 relations, while I have over 1300.  She should also have thousands of detectable distant genetic relatives, but they are not in the genetic database (yet).