Carole Whitehead wrote in part:

I have recently learned that my grandfather, Leib (Louis) ELIAN came >from
Przemysl. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me what my next stop
should be in researching my grandfather's history there.

Very useful documents if you can find them:

1) Burial Record (US). Contained his father and mother's name and the
country he was born in, birth and death dates. Romanian and Ukrainian Death
records show cause of death sometimes.

2) Petition for Immigration. This had the arrival date in the US; the ship
my GF traveled on; the name of the city, county and country he was from, all
in his handwriting. Based on this I could look up the Ship Manifest at NARA.
Unfortunately his last place of residence was not the city he was born in.
If it had been I would know where to get birth records.

3) Ship Manifest. Last city my GF lived in, departure point, his destination
which was his brother-in-law's house, his father's name.

4) SS-5 (Social Security Application) has mother and father's name and birth
location in the handwriting of the applicant

5) Census Data. Based on the Ship Manifest I found him living with his
sister in 1910 in NYC, and with a cousin in 1920 in Detroit. It also listed
all the other occupants of the house, valuable information in finding living
relatives for oral history. Based on this census data I now know the living
children of his sister and just called them last night.

6) Birth Records. I have some >from Ukraine and some >from Romania. They show
mother and father's name, and sometimes the age of the parents, but not
always, even when >from the same register.

Hope this helps.

Leslie Gyi
<leslie@...>