Hi All,
I received this in the afternoon e-mail and wanted to share it with all of
you. Can't wait for this to come to life. If this doesn't quite fit a
surname mailing list, I appologize, but it does pertain to genealogy.
Debie
ARCHIVE PUTS HUDDLED MASSES ON-LINE - Volunteers scanning Ellis
Island
Records. (SF Examiner 2/2/99)
Climbing the family tree will take a lot less clawing as soon as
a nonprofit
foundation finishes a more than $15 million project to post Ellis
Island
immigration records on the internet.
By helping people to access information instantly that
previously was buried
in a bureaucratic quagmire, the project will revolutionize
genealogical
research for many of the more than 113 million Americans who
already actively
pursue their family histories.
Officials at the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation in
NY, the same
organization that gave Lady Liberty a face lift in 1986 without
any public
funding, estimate that more than 40% of Americans can trace their
European
ancestry back to Ellis Island.
"This is going to be a reference point", said Vern Deubler,
Pres. of the
Calif. Genealogical Society, which was based in San Francisco for
a century
before moving to Oakland this year. "It's going to provide
people with very
important leads".
By the end of next year, the foundation hopes, people will be
able to enter
any information they know about a progenitor and the program will
search more
than 20 million records for a match. The software will even be
able to
tolerate misspellings.
If a match is found, the researcher can choose to print out a
photo of the
ship and a copy of the original manifesto that marked the
immigrant's arrival.
At Fisherman's Wharf on Monday, Stephen Briganti, Chairman of
the
foundation, said the new database would especially help Bay Area
researchers.
He said the Bay Area remains one of the major hubs for Eliis
Island
immigrants and their descendants. Tens of thousands of immigrants
came here
after arriving through the port, first to fuel the Industrial
revolution and
later to farm wine grapes. He said first generation travelers
from the main
Ellis Island years - 1892 to 1924 - still live in the area.
Briganti added that Californians' interest in Ellis Island
immigration
research, based on requests for the foundation's resources, is
outstripped
only by New yorkers'.
The database - which organizers say could be ready by the end
of 2000 -
will catalog records of almost 20 million immigrants who flooded
the tiny NY
Harbor island. Until now, those documents have been stored at
the National
Archives and Immigration and Naturalization Service in the clunky
microfilm
format.
The first phase of the project was to collect and digitize
records and
install computers at the museum.
Now, Briganti said, putting the information on the Internet has
become a top
goal as well.
"We're pretty confident this is going to work," Briganti said.
"It's not
perfect, but it's light years ahead of going to the Archives."
A demonstration of the system showed that a reseacher can enter
information
in any or all of 11 fields, which ask for personal information
such as the
subject's name and country of birth, and immigration, like the
subject's port
of entry.
Foundation spokeswoman Peg Zitko said the project got off the
ground when a
nationwide network of Mormon volunteers agreed to digitize the
microfilm
information for free. Thousands of volunteers have logged more
than 2 million
hours; they've entered 3/5's of the data so far.
A spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in Salt Lake
City said the project was important to the church's mission.
"We've always
been involved in genealogy," said Dan Rascon, "because linking to
our family
helps us understand who we are and what we may become."
Information on the project may be found at
www.ellisisland.org
on the
internet.
(And I just want you all to know that I typed this, not scanned,
so I hope I
get some appreciation out there!!!!!!!! Best, and good night!
Terry in
Calif.) PS, Please feel free to pass this along to other
genealogy lists.