Family records are all we have, and a couple of ships’ passenger manifests from Spain-one of my relatives tracked our first Basque immigrants to the Pyrenees, but the ones who supposedly came from Leon are lost in shadow before they arrived in Vera Cruz.
I think it is fascinating to hear all the family histories about their arrival in this country. Mine arrived on the east coast very early. They migrated west and left a few marks along the way. Traveled by horseback/wagon or on foot to Texas. Tough people, tougher than I am.
One of the most fascinating stories I have ever heard came from my husbands dental surgeon. Her very large family left central Europe in about 1890 to go to the US. They traveled together to the nearest port, but because there were so many of them they were forced to take different ships. They did not speak the language of the port city and one half got on a ship to NY the other ended up in South America. It was about 75 years before the family was united.