> > >Resent-From: GEN-SLAVIC-L@rootsweb.com >X-Mailing-List: <GEN-SLAVIC-L@rootsweb.com> archive/latest/104 > >===================================================================== >"AN ELLIS ISLAND EXPERIMENT," by Megan Smolenyak >===================================================================== > >In April 2001, the American Family Immigration History Center >launched the Ellis Island database (EIDB), making some 22 million >immigration records from 1892-1924 available for free searching at: >http://www.ellisislandrecords.org >Some time after, frustrated at not being able to locate a particular >ancestor in the EIDB, Stephen P. Morse developed a search form for >his own use. This form enabled him to search the EIDB in more ways >than were possible through the Ellis Island site itself. He told a >few others about it and word began to spread. Before you knew it, he >was being interviewed by journalists from around the world, and more >and more researchers were finding their way to his One-Step search >form at: http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/ellis/ellis.html >With the introduction of Steve Morse's search tool, genealogists now >have three options for finding their Ellis Island immigrants: > >1) Traditional microfilm research >2) The EIDB >3) Morse's search form > >Curious which one would be the most effective for my own research, I >decided to conduct a little experiment. As I explained in a previous >article >(http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A556401) >about another experiment concerning the accuracy of the recent >transcription of the EIDB, my own surname -- Smolenyak -- works well >as a case study because it has that foreign sound of many Ellis >Island immigrants, can be misspelled in countless ways, and provides >a population large enough to examine but not so large as to be >overwhelming. Also, all Smolenyaks trace their origins to a single >village, making it useful for exploring a town search feature >available in Morse's form. For all these reasons, I used Smolenyak >for my experiment. > >The experiment itself was simple enough. I searched for Smolenyaks >using each of the three methodologies independently, as if it were >my only option. For each approach, I noted how many Smolenyaks I >found and how many spellings they were found under. Once I was done >with all three, I went though the results to count the total number >of unique Smolenyak entries that had occurred through Ellis Island. >In all, I found twenty-one, so this was the maximum number of >records I could have possibly found using any method. > >Here's what my experiment revealed: > >--- Using National Archives microfilm only, I found fifteen >Smolenyaks under seven spellings > >--- Using the EIDB only, I found fifteen Smolenyaks under nine spellings > >--- Using Morse's search form, I found twenty Smolenyaks under >fifteen spellings > >As you might suspect, the fifteen found through microfilm research >and the fifteen found through the EIDB overlap, but are not the same >fifteen. The six not found by microfilm are those who came during >the unindexed years of 1892-97, while the six not found by the EIDB >were ones disguised by odd spellings. > >Assuming my surname is at least somewhat typical of Ellis Island >immigrants, this suggests that roughly 71 percent (15/21) of >instances of a surname can be found using traditional research >techniques only. Research through just the EIDB website apparently >produces about the same results. Finally, working solely with the >Morse search tools uncovers an impressive 95 percent (20/21). >One of the most powerful aspects of the Morse search form is the >flexibility it gives you to dig out all the possible spellings. As >the results above show, a single name was spelled a total of fifteen >different ways in only twenty-one observations. In fact, of the >twenty-one entries, only two were listed as Szmolenyak, the correct >spelling at the time. To give a flavor for what the user can expect, >the nine versions found using the EIDB were Szmolenak (3), Smoleniak >(3), Szmolenyak (2), Szmolinyak (2), Szmolinak (1), Szmolenyik (1), >Smolenjak (1), Smolenick (1), and Smolina (1). After decades of >sporting this name, most of these aren't very surprising to me, but >I'm not so sure I would have discovered the five additional >variations revealed by the Morse tools: one each of Smolyniak, >Szmolmak, Smolensk, Szmslenak, and Szuwlyenak. >It's important to note that no one method would have surfaced all >twenty-one Smolenyak entries. And before you excuse yourself from >any further microfilm research, I have to point out that the elusive >one - the one that blocked the Morse tools from a perfect >performance - could only be found on microfilm. Working backwards >from a hard copy of a manifest I located in the National Archives, I >determined that it had been entered into the EIDB as "C . . . >oleniak," making it all but impossible to extract regardless how >creative the researcher might have been. 95 percent might sound good >enough to a lot of us, but not if you happen to be descended from >No.21! > >I'm delighted to have access to a resource as incredible as the EIDB >and definitely plan to make extensive use of Morse's powerful search >form to help me excavate those ancestors playing hide-and-seek in >the database. But like it or not, I can't help but remark that good, >old- >fashioned research techniques never seem to lose their value! > >___________________________________________________________________ > >Megan Smolenyak, author of "In Search of Our Ancestors," companion >book to the 2000 PBS Ancestors series, and the forthcoming "Honoring >Our Ancestors: Inspiring Stories of the Quest for Our Roots," can be >reached through http://www.honoringourancestors.com > >____________________________________________________________________ > >FOR A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE, e-mail it to a >friend, or submit your feedback on it, just go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A565501 >and click on the appropriate icon in the beige sidebar. > >Source: "Ancestry Daily News" (http://www.ancestry.com/rd/dailynews.htm) >Copyright 1998-2002, MyFamily.comInc. and its subsidiaries. > > >-- Michelle Tucker Chubenko >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Ukraine WorldGenWeb Country Coordinator: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ukrwgw/index.html >OKGenWeb County Coordinator: > Adair Co.: http://www.rootsweb.com/~okadair/adaircty.htm > Cherokee Co.: http://www.rootsweb.com/~okchero2/index.htm >OKGenWeb Archives: > Adair Co.: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ok/adair/adair.html >Michelle's Home Page: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mchub/shell.htm >History & Images of Carteret, NJ > http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~mchub/carteret/ --