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Copyright© 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

The Ellis Island Web site has become one of the most popular genealogy sites online. It is very easy to use although the search mechanism is not perfect. Variations in the spelling of names can often lead to difficulties. (Contrary to popular belief, names were almost never changed at Ellis Island. That happened in the months and years after immigration. The records made at Ellis Island almost always had the correct spelling from the old country, a name that modern-day descendants might not be familiar with.) Another frequently encountered problem revolves around common names: several hundred or even thousands of people with the same name may have passed through Ellis Island. Which one is your ancestor?

Stephen Morse has created a series of online "forms" that can be valuable for narrowing the searches at EllisIsland.org. The forms include:

1. Ellis Island Database white form: Searches all passengers, has very restricted town search and somewhat restricted sounds-like search

2. Ellis Island Database (Jewish Passengers) blue form: Searches for Jewish passengers only -- has unrestricted town search and unrestricted sounds-like search, supports some additional search parameters

3. Ellis Island Database (Short Form) gray form: Searches all passengers -- has unrestricted town search and unrestricted sounds-like search, lacks some of the other search parameters

Town Searches may be conducted using the exact spelling of the town, by using only the starting letters of the town name, or by "sounds like" spellings.

Name searches can also be conducted using a "sounds like" methodology. This is especially good for Slavic and Jewish names with sounds that do not translate well into the English language. Again, remember that the names WERE recorded correctly at Ellis Island but were often modified later.

Best of all, the researcher can also search for:

• gender
• marital status
• month/day of arrival (white form supports year of arrival only)
• the person's age at time of arrival
• ships’ names, starting with a specified string of characters or containing a specified string of characters (white form requires exact spelling of ship name)
• port names starting with a specified string of characters or containing a specified string of characters (white form gives you a partial list of ports from which to select).

If you are searching for Jewish passengers and you have reason to believe that they were identified as such in the database, then the blue form is the preferable one to use. Otherwise, you should use the white or gray form. You use the gray form if you need to do a flexible search by town, and the white form if you want to enter such parameters as ethnicity. You'll also need to use the gray form if you want to do a single search involving both a town and a name-sounds-like since you can do either one but not both on the white form. It might turn out that you will have to switch back and forth between these forms until you get the right mix and are able to find the passenger you are searching for.

While you are there, look at some of Stephen's other great software tools, including improved online census search tools, a tool for obtaining almost anyone's birthday (it found mine), One Step Social Security Death Records searches and a Jewish calendar conversion program.

This week I had a chance to use a new CD-ROM disk produced by S&N Genealogy Supplies. The new Crew Lists & Agreements: For the years 1863 to 1913 contains records that have been drawn from Crew Lists, Crew Agreements, and Log Books for the period 1863-1913, which are held in local record offices (ROs) in the British Isles and at the Public Record Office (PRO) in Kew.

This particular CD-ROM disk is part of the Crew List Project (or CLIP) run by Peter Owen. The original files have been collated to produce a master name index of more that 269,000 records. The data also is sorted into the records matching particular vessels, making it possible for you to follow a person's career progress through the crew list records and determine which ships they served on and when.

The name index is bookmarked alphabetically, so you can use the bookmarks to help locate the surname you are looking for. The text of the document is fully searchable, using Adobe Acrobat's search tools. Once you find the record you are looking for, you can note the ID number and then later use that number to search the vessel index for even more information. Each entry is a record of a different crew list; so, there may be multiple entries for the same individual.

I inserted the CD into my computer and opened it in the same manner as other Adobe Acrobat disks. I spent a few minutes reading the instructions and then opened up the records in the NAME.PDF file. I did a quick search for my own surname and found many listings. Here is one of them, used to show the typical information in these records:

The above information had to be manually re-typed; there is no capability to copy-and-paste information from this CD-ROM disk. I did print a couple of pages and found that the result is easy to read, like any other computer printout.

This is an excellent resource for anyone looking for mariners in the family tree. It contains high-quality data that is difficult to obtain elsewhere. Best of all, this new disk should work equally well on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems.

The Crew Lists & Agreements: For the years 1863 to 1913 CD-ROM disk sells for £29.95, roughly $47.00 U.S. That price does not include shipping or taxes, if any. You can safely order this CD-ROM disk on S&N's secure Web site. By using a credit card, you do not need to be concerned about purchasing a check or money order in U.K. Pounds Sterling. Of course, use of a credit card online is also safer than sending a check through the mail.

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Calico Pie Limited, the British producer of Family Historian, now has announced a new and improved version. Family Historian version 2.1 has added the following:

• A New Reports Menu, a New Reports Window and 17 New Reports. The new reports include:

• Individual Summary Report
• Family Group Sheet
• Ancestor Outline
• Descendant Outline
• Source Summary Report
• Individual Census Report
• List Report

• All reports can be saved in HTML (World Wide Web) format, RTF (Rich Text Format - supported by word-processors such as Microsoft Word), or plain text. The reports are fully configurable. You can create custom reports, using any existing report as a template.

• A new facility for creating named lists

• A new Tools menu facility to allow you to re-order out-of-sequence data

• New Backup/Restore facility

• Fast-find Edit controls for Name and/or Record ID in the Records window

• Improved support for dates

• Numerous other enhancements

The New England Historic Genealogical Society is publishing a major new work by Frank J. Doherty. It will be published both in book form and as a searchable online database.

The following announcement is from the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

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Liverpool’s central library plans to become one of the world biggest virtual archives. The plans comprise two projects. The first involves a £10 million (roughly 16 million U.S. dollars) plan to digitize millions of archive files. This will be followed with a £30 million ($48 million) project redeveloping the site to house a 21st century heritage centre.

The new centre, expected to be completed by August 2007, will make Liverpool one of the foremost centers of genealogy in the world, where members of the public will be able to trace their family history online. This project reportedly mayl match or even exceed the size of the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The Digital Genealogy and Heritage Library project will be funded through a £17.5 million Private Finance Initiative deal and partially financed by National Lottery funds.

Members of the public and the library's customers will be consulted on the plans by the end of this year.

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Need a librarian in the middle of the night? Several Maryland libraries are trying to make sure you'll be able to find one ready to help. Best of all, you won't even have to leave the house - if you have a computer with Internet access.

Last week, libraries across the state of Maryland launched a free service called Maryland AskUsNow!, which will make librarians available 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week for online chat sessions. A similar service is already operating in New Jersey.

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The Illinois State Archives is one of the more progressive state archives. It is adding new online databases so fast that I can barely keep up with them. Here are a few databases added in recent months:

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Lilla Hudoba is a native of Hungary who moved to the United States six years ago. She has an interest in genealogy and has now created a Web page and a mailing list that should be helpful to anyone researching Hungarian genealogy.

Hungarotips is devoted to more than just genealogy; it gives lots of information about the country and about Hungarian culture. There are more than a 100 pictures online along with travel guide. There is a "Learn Hungarian" section, featuring Magyar lessons with sound files, quizzes, and self-tests. You can even sign up for the daily grammar newsletter. Check out the English-to-Hungarian translator as well. While a bit limited, it is an excellent method of learning a few phrases.

Hungarotips also lists days, holidays, folk traditions, Hungarian customs, on-line quizzes, and even a jigsaw puzzle. You can also check the current weather in Budapest.

Are you looking for Hungarian friends or relatives? You can submit your genealogy research and surnames to the Hungarotips Genealogy List.

This is a nice site. Have Hungarian ancestry? If so, go to:

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The following is an announcement from 123Genealogy:

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Several historians and researchers have claimed that radio carbon dating evidence, along with the discovery of ancient British style artifacts and inscriptions, have provided "the strongest indications yet" that British explorers, under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in North America during the 6th Century and set up colonies in what is now the American Midwest.

Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett of the Foundation for European American Heritage and James B. Michael of the Ancient Kentucke Historical Association recently made the announcement. Research team members have known the location of burial sites of Madoc's close relatives in Wales for some time. Many of the grave mounds found in the American south and midwest, including those at Bat Creek, Tennessee, are similarly ancient British in origin and design, Wilson said.

Jim Michael added, "The stone tablet found at Bat Creek in 1889 included an inscription written in Coelbren, an ancient British alphabet known and recorded by historians and bards down the ages." Wilson said that his research had brought him into contact with very similar alphabet inscriptions in Britain, Europe, and the Middle East. "The components of the alphabet derive from the earliest days of the Khumric (Welsh) people," he added, "and were used along their migration routes to Wales in antiquity."

Wilson's research partner, Baram A. Blackett, explained, "Once we discovered the cipher for the alphabet recorded in texts dating to the 1500s, we knew we were in business. We have translated many of these inscriptions, and they all make perfect sense." Jim Michael commented that the final translation for the Bat Creek tablet was an exciting business, "especially when we knew it read, 'Madoc the ruler he is'."

Some historians have written off the evidence for Prince Madoc, the Welsh prince who sailed to America circa 562 AD. "They often give a false date of 1170, and this legend has replaced the facts," added Wilson. "At the moment, there is a small group of wreckers trying to steal our research and to promote this misdating. Luckily, we've done all the groundwork and have a substantial body of evidence in our favour."

Wilson, Blackett, and Michael made the identification of the Bat Creek main tumulus as the likely tomb of Prince Madoc in January 1990. Michael has been in contact with the Smithsonian with a view to its allowing the bone fragments to be DNA tested. They also claim that there are numerous ancient British Coelbren inscriptions in the American midwest.

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This is a Plus Edition-only article and is available only to subscribers to the Plus Edition of this newsletter. To learn how to subscribe to the Plus Edition, go to http://www.RootsForum.com/plus

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Most people believe that there is a coat of arms for their family. Gullible Americans and others spend thousands of dollars every year buying reproductions of what they believe are valid coats of arms. These replicas often are printed on paper that looks like parchment and then framed. You can also find advertisements for the same thing embroidered on clothing or embossed on coffee cups and key chains. There is only one thing wrong: all this stuff is bogus.

In fact, there is no such thing as a "family coat of arms." Only one person at a time may display a coat of arms and only then after he (or occasionally she) has received written permission to do so. When the valid holder of the arms dies, his primary heir may apply for permission to use the same coat of arms. Permission is never granted to multiple people simultaneously, and certainly never to an entire family.

The Society of Genealogists in England has an excellent explanation of all this on their Web site. Quoting from the site:

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- Recent Discussion Board Messages

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Genealogists normally like to study the current events of the times in which our ancestors lived. Wars are easy to study as they are well documented in history books. Yet other calamities of bygone times are often not so well known and documented.

One great disaster in the early twentieth century was the great Molasses Flood of January 15, 1919, in Boston, Massachusetts. This sounds humorous until one reads that 21 people died as an eight-foot high wall of molasses rolled down Commercial Street at a rather high speed. Two million gallons of crude molasses can move quickly when warmed by the sun. You could say that these unfortunate people were molassessed to death. Not exactly how I wish to go.

You can read an account of this bizarre accident at:

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