Good morning everyone, I found this item in the Avotaynu newsletter. We thank them for making this information available. We hope some of you find the Ellis Island database useful. Thanks for being the ROOTWALKER family. Sincerely, Stan Magnesen ROOTWALKER site/list coordinator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday, April 17, is the big day when the index to the Ellis Island passenger arrival database becomes available on the Internet. Don't expect instant access to the site. The opening will be featured on the "Today" show, a popular morning television broadcast in the United States viewed by millions of people. If you try to access the site but cannot get a connection, try between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. U.S. time or wait a few days. It will be located at http://www.ellisisland.org/history.html. In an article in "Family Tree Magazine", a spokesman for the Ellis Island Foundation stated that there is no soundex system but "a computational linguistic search filtering system that is sensitive to ethnic linguistic patterns" is an essential feature of the system. The person claims that in many ways it outdoes a soundex system.