***** Message forwarded from "Sandy Trope" <TropeSJ@ldschurch.org> ***** LDS Church Press Release 28 Oct 98 ELLIS ISLAND TO GET FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER Church is Digitizing 17 Million Immigrant Records for the Facility The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is playing a key role in the establishment of a family history research center on New York's Ellis Island, where in two years the public will have automated access to a computerized database containing 17 million U.S. immigration records. At a news conference today on the island, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Chairman Emeritus Lee Iacocca announced plans for the American Family Immigration History Center, expected to open in the year 2000. During the past five years, the Church, in cooperation with the foundation and the National Park Service, has spent more than two million volunteer hours digitizing Ellis Island records. To date, some 65 percent of the records have been extracted from microfilmed copies of the original ledgers--passenger records and ships' manifests--which were mostly hand-written, faded and damaged. The original documents were destroyed years ago. The remaining 35 percent of the records will be extracted and digitized by the opening of the center, which will be situated in the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The center will house state-of-the-art interactive computer technology that will bring family documentation and genealogical exploration to visitors. The Ellis Island records represent some 60 percent of all U.S. immigration records. It is estimated that more than 100 million Americans today can trace their roots to immigrants who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924. The Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a world leader in genealogical research, with more than 3,200 family history centers worldwide and the world's largest collection of family history records, housed in Salt Lake City. ***** End of forwarded Message ***** -------------------------------------------------------------------- John D. Stone jdstone@erols.com http://www.erols.com/jdstone Visit the "Latter-day Saints' Resources on the Internet" -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Death is a graduation day and a time of assessment to see what we have become. -- Sterling W. Sill (Ensign, November 1976, page 46) --------------------------------------------------------------------