Political Asylum and Family Roots
I came across an interesting situation this past week with a friend of mine. I had offered to do some digging around for his family that had immigrated here from Romania.
I had very little to go on, as usually happens and almost right away I hit a brick wall. It seems my friend forgot to mention that he and his family came here under political asylum.
So with that I did a little jump in an attempt to find the family name in Romania… Nope, it was far too big of a jump of one Generation, the currently living side here, and the no longer with us side in Romania. I was able to locate all the living individuals here in the US, but nothing in Romania.
The mystery deepens. My friend told me he was sure that the family was actually descended from the Spanish according to his father. In researching the family name there is not a single instance of the name to be found in Spain or even in Romania but France and Switzerland shows promise. So while I am not giving up on the search I find it incredibly fascinating where a single name can lead you.
It is fun to see where the name leads and I even smiled when he told me the reason I couldn’t find anything outside the US for his family because of the asylum. I guess the moral of the story is, ask the “right” questions before you begin your research so you know the stumbling blocks you may need to overcome.
If you are researching in Romania these links may be helpful for you:
Romania Genealogy Links Page
Romanian White/Yellow Pages (English)
Happy trails…
