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Re: Trying to find info on ancestors from Latvia/Germany.
Lisha Penn
Mar 4, 2020 8:32 AM
Dear Mr. Tyler,
Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!
Based on the timeframe of their arrival to the United States, it is likely that they will each have a file created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). We searched the National Archives Catalog and located a series titled Alien Case Files (A-File), 1944 - 2009 in the Records of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (Record Group 566) that includes an A-File for Alexander Hecels born in 1894 in Latvia. For access to and/or copies of this file, please contact the National Archives at San Francisco (RW-SB) via email at sanbruno.archives@nara.gov. Please ask the RW-SB staff to verify whether that it the file of Alexander Johann Hecels.
We were unable to locate matches for Otillia Herrmann within the A-Files at the NARA. We suggest that you submit an Index Search request with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Genealogy Program at www.uscis.gov/genealogy to track down INS records for her.
We also searched Ancestry and located Alexander Hecels at age 51 on the Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons in November 1951 (shows country of origin as Latvia); all immigration & travel results for Alexander Johann Hetzel; all immigration & travel results for Otillia Elsa Herrmann; all citizenship & naturalization results for Alexander Johann Hetzel; all citizenship & naturalization results for Otillia Elsa Herrmann. There may be a fee for using Ancestry. Instead, you may view these records online at one NARA's facilities for free via a NARA PC. For the nearest NARA location, please consult our web page at https://www.archives.gov/locations/. Also, some of the images from Ancestry are available for free on Family Search at https://www.familysearch.org/en/.
You may wish to review History of Latvia: A brief synopsis; History of Latvia; and Latvian State Historical Archives(Raduraksti)l websites for background information and/or more resources.
We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!
[Some information provided by Elizabeth Burnes, Subject Matter Expert]