People often came to America in company with friends and relations. Sometimes this was a chain migration within a family, and sometimes they were joining a group that shared their ideals or culture. If you have ancestors that belonged to a particular ethnic group, look for resources to help you read documents in other languages and/or alphabets. Look for histories of those groups, the places they left, and the area they settled.

At the Library of Congress, there are specialist librarians who can help you with the paleography of European languages; Luso-American and Caribbean languages; Asian; African; and Judaic languages. These librarians will be located throughout four reading rooms, known collectively as the area studies reading rooms or the international collections. These reading rooms include the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room; Asian Reading Room; European Reading Room; and the Hispanic Reading Room:

• African, Near Eastern (Middle Eastern), and Judaic countries and languages are handled by subject librarians in the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room.
• For Chinese, Japanese, Korean (North and South), Mongolian-Tibetan, South Asian and Southeast Asian languages and countries, see the librarians in the Asian Reading Room.
• The European Reading Room has subject librarians for all European countries and their respective languages excluding Spain, Portugal (Hispanic Reading Room), United Kingdom, and Ireland (Main Reading Room).
• For assistance on the countries and languages of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal, and other countries influenced by Luso-Hispanic culture, consult the librarians in the Hispanic Reading Room.

For example, the following communities in the United States which retained their own culture and language include Yiddish, German, French, Russian, Czech, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Native Americans. Yiddish materials would be located in the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room; German, French, Russian, Italian in the European Reading Room; Chinese and Japanese in the Asian Reading Room. Materials on Indigenous people from Latin America would be available in the Hispanic Reading Room. The Main Reading Room handles items on Indigenous people from the United States.