| How Cathy Used the 5-Step Research Process |
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| Step 1: Write down what you know. |
Cathy had been gathering immigration information about her ancestors on her father's line. She knew that her great-aunt, Catharina Spiegel, and Catharina's three children were immigrants from Hungary who had arrived in New York in 1910. |
| Step 2: Decide what you want to learn. |
Cathy decided to look for a ship's passenger list that would contain the names of Catharina and her daughters, Margaret, Elizabetha, and Catharina and document their arrival in New York. |
| Step 3: Choose a source of information. |
Cathy decided that the best place to look would be the immigration records for the port of New York. |
| Step 4: Learn from the source. |
Cathy searched these records at a nearby regional branch of the National Archives and discovered, to her great surprise, that Catharina had a fourth daughter, Apollonia, who had died in infancy at Ellis Island. |
| Step 5: Use what you learned. |
Cathy shared information about this missing child with other family members and cycled through the research process several more times to discover a death certificate, funeral home, and cemetery records for Apollonia. To be sure that she would never be forgotten again, Cathy had Apollonia Spiegel's name put on the Wall of Honor at Ellis Island. |
