How do I find individuals that fought in the Crimean War and migrated to the US?

Question:

How do I find individuals that fought in the Crimean War and migrated to the US?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You would have to use 4 sets of records. Unfortunately, no one created a master list of Crimean War veterans who immigrated to the US (though they do have lists of Crimean Tatars who emigrated...go figure). But there are several lists and records of those who fought and returned. You'll need to start with the military records of the man in question.

Once you have the military records, you need to search for where he lived before leaving for the US. Your goal is to find an exit visa that allowed him to leave British lands. That was usually within 30 days of leaving the country (actually it was usually issued the day before leaving, but they had 30 days to use it in case the ship didn't sail for some reason). Once you know when they left, you look for the passenger lists of the ships sailing from wherever they lived, whether Britain, Ireland or Scotland, to a US port. You can skip Canadian ports because they weren't sharing ships to go to both the US and Canada. There was an uneasy peace between the two in the 19th C.

After you have the passenger list, you want to find both state and federal census records in the US to trace where he went and when. From there, look for church records, be they Methodist, Episcopalian/Anglican, Presbyterian or Catholic. Finally, you hope for marriage records on children or burial records on him or his spouse to help you figure out where he lies today.

Hope it helps...