--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Cheryl Rothwell" <LoganCty(a)mindspring.com>
To: ILMARION-L(a)rootsweb.com
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 11:47:44 -0400
Subject: [ILMARION] Immigrant Ancestors 1892-1924
Message-ID: <MABBLLPECBOIGPALMIAOCEFICMAA.LoganCty(a)mindspring.com>
This is from the current Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter:
- Ellis Island Online Database
Are you looking for your ancestors' immigration records? If they
arrived at Ellis Island between January 1892 and December 1924,
you may soon be able to find their information online. The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) is developing
the American Family History Immigration History Center at the
Ellis Island Immigration Museum. A grand opening and dedication of
the facility is taking place April 17.
The LDS Church and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum officially
announced the History Center project on Oct. 28, 1998. However,
work on the project had already been underway for five years and
involved thousands of volunteers who had to sort through passenger
records and ship manifests and enter them into a database.
Officials had hoped to make the database available to the public
late last year. However, like many such huge projects, the
original projections slipped a bit. The online database is now
scheduled to become available at the same time as the new center
opens: April 17.
According to the Ellis Island Foundation, 12,000 volunteer LDS
Church members worked on the project and donated some 5.6 million
hours to complete the 25 million entries in the extraction
process. The church also devoted 20 full-time staff members and 35
missionaries to the project. "We're very grateful to have the
expertise and generosity of the (LDS) church and its volunteers in
the development of this very important and long-awaited family
history resource," said Peg Zitko, director for public affairs at
the foundation. The LDS Church's help "saved us considerable
financial investment."
This new computerized database will provide automated access to
more than 22 million historic Ellis Island passenger records.
However, the digitized records will only cover the period from
January 1892 to December 1924 and will include only about 71
percent of the passenger arrivals during that period. Plans call
for a future expansion of the project to include additional
passenger years and records.
The database contains information on aliens, U.S. citizens, crew
members, deportees and even those who literally missed the boat.
Traveler name, name of vessel, departure, ports of arrival and
dates of arrival comprise the standard information to be
available. Age, gender, marriage status, birthdate, place of birth
and ethnicity is other information available on some entries.
Do not confuse this new database with the "American Immigrant Wall
of Honor" database that has been available for some time. The
"American Immigrant Wall of Honor" database is a listing of all
the names inscribed on the "American Immigrant Wall of Honor." The
Wall honors all immigrants, not just those who were processed at
Ellis Island. I even found John Alden listed in the "American
Immigrant Wall of Honor" database. He arrived on the Mayflower in
1620, two hundred seventy-two years before Ellis Island first
opened.
This wall at Ellis Island is a memorial funded by private
contributions. In order to have an ancestor's name inscribed on
the "American Immigrant Wall of Honor" and also listed in the
database, his or her descendants or some other person must pay
$100. For a listing of a husband and wife, such as "John A. and
Mary T. Smith," the charge is $200. Several "special name formats"
are also available, with fees ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. All
names are entered without verification of the information, so we
must assume that errors exist.
The new immigrants database that will go online this week is a
very different offering from the "American Immigrant Wall of
Honor." The new immigrants database will contain information
extracted from original records, all without requirement for any
payment of fees to "honor" these immigrants. The new database
should contain very high quality genealogy information.
Keep an eye for this new database to appear soon at:
http://www.ellisisland.org
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