A frequently asked question by visitors to Ellis Island in New York is: "Where can I find my family's immigration records?"
That answer will be readily available soon — even on the Internet — thanks to a key role by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in developing the American Family History Immigration History Center at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. A grand opening and dedication of the facility is planned for April 17.
Scott Trotter, manager of LDS Church public affairs in New York, said the project was a joint venture with The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.
"The foundation looked at hiring someone, but it was too expensive," Trotter said.
Located a few hundred yards north of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Ellis Island was the gateway for 12 million immigrants to the United States between 1892 and 1954.
The History Center project was officially announced on Oct. 28, 1998. Initial work actually began in 1993 and enlisted thousands of volunteers who had to sort through passenger records and ship manifests and enter them into a database. Volunteers had pore over damaged or faded microfilmed copies of original records, which had been somehow destroyed.
The foundation says they receive hundreds of e-mails each month asking about family records, and the database will help people trace their ancestry further than was able before.
"There's an awful lot of interest in this project," said Peg Zitko, director for public affairs at the foundation. "We expect a very large participation."
It was hoped the project could be available to the public late last year, but Trotter said the massive scope of the project delayed it a few months. An online database, accessible through www.ellisisland.org, and a center at Ellis Island will be up and running by April 17.
According to the 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," Zitko said. The LDS Church's help "saved us considerable financial investment."
The LDS Church completed the data late last year and has now donated it to the National Park Service, which operates the museum, and the Ellis Island Foundation.
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.
It is expected that the automation of these significant records will contribute greatly to the genealogical effort of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Contributing: Kersten Swinyard
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com