Ancestry Magazine

Take a look at some cultural enclaves, where groups of immigrants from the same country clustered together and, in the process, perpetuated cultural components of their native lands.

Language, culture, sounds, sights, and smells—if you’ve ever been to a foreign country, it’s likely all of your senses were triggered—good or bad —the moment you stepped off the boat or plane. But very few of us have had to take our first impressions of a country and turn them into a new life like our immigrant ancestors did.

How did they do it? America’s immigrants found unique ways to compromise—they embraced American culture while retaining their native heritage by starting new lives in ethnic or cultural enclaves.

New York’s Little Italy, Miami’s Little Havana, Chicago’s Andersonville, and Los Angeles’s Chinatown —each one is an ethnic or cultural enclave, a place where groups of immigrants from the same country clustered together and, in the process, perpetuated cultural components of their native lands.

“People feel comfortable with other people from their country of origin,” says University of California-Irvine professor of sociology Susan K. Brown. The enclaves, she indicates, were and still are part of the process of assimilation for immigrants. “First, people find a niche,” says Brown, “they find jobs, and then subsequent [immigrants] contact them for help finding a job or a place to work and social networks develop.”

But there are other reasons people are drawn toward ethnic enclaves, too, like the ability to communicate and build a support network. “Language is another factor, as is religion,” says Brown. “Discrimination has also been, and possibly is still, a factor. In fact, until 1948, communities could legally exclude certain religious or ethnic groups from purchasing land.”

The course of time has changed many of America’s former ethnic enclaves—in some instances today all that remains of the ethnic heritage is the community’s name. In other instances, borders changed or blurred. New York’s Little Italy, for example, has lost real estate over the years while neighboring Little China has grown. Still, thumbing through the remains of these communities, a family historian might be able to pick up clues and facts about a former resident’s lifestyle and life.

Start with a community’s sense of taste—ethnic markets and restaurants—and cultural landmarks like theatres for insight into everyday life. Inquire about records at churches, associations, historical societies, community newspapers, libraries, and schools in the ethnic enclaves for more information about a former resident.

Remember, cautions Myra Vanderpool Gormley, professional genealogist and editor of the RootsWeb Review, the resources associated with these enclave s can vary greatly. “Some have obituary collections of the immigrants, some have church records, some have databases of family trees of descendants, some have immigration records, [and] some have naturalizations,” she says.

Still, it may be worth a look at the old neighborhood not just to expand your understanding of an ancestor but also as an opportunity to add a little girth to the family tree. Says Brown, who has studied America’s ethnic enclaves extensively, “Most of the research has shown that immigrants themselves often move out [of the enclaves], but generally stay in the same area.” So tracing an ancestor back to an ethnic enclave could mean that there’s a good chance you’ll also be paving a path to other generations and branches of the family tree.