WVHANCOC-L Archives

From: "Julia A. Heaton Krutilla" <>
Subject: Ellis Island Search Info
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 16:26:22 -0400

Nu? What's New?
News About Jewish Genealogy
from Avotaynu
Vol. 2, No. 10 - May 13, 2001
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
************************************************************

Expect Improvements to the Ellis Island Search Ability
======================================================
I have had e-mail correspondence with the professor of linguistics
who designed the portion of the Ellis Island Database search engine
that provides assistance when there isn't an exact match. He stated
there will be significant improvements to the search engine in the
next 30 days. He specifically stated that the current system's
inability to recognize that surnames ending in -SKY and -SKI are
synonymous is handled by his algorithm. Although he did not state
it overtly, it appears that the Ellis Island people decided not to
delay the opening despite that fact that all the software was not
yet implemented. It would have been valuable to know this in the
past few weeks, because part of the problem of the inaccessibility
to the site is that frustrated researchers are staying online longer
than normal trying other combinations of their surnames in a vain
effort to locate records of their ancestors. The Ellis Island database
is located at http://www.ellisislandrecords.org.


A Little Bit of Ellis Island Humor
==================================
One demonstration of the inadequacy of the current Ellis Island
database
(EIDB) environment is that there is already third-party software
being developed to combat the shortcomings of the system. Edward
Rosenbaum, president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Bergen
County (New Jersey), is a computer analyst. He has developed
shareware that provides possible alternate spellings of names that
you cannot find in the EIDB. You can download it from
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~elr228/eidb.htm. At the recent
meeting of his society, when he announced the product's
availability, someone added, "Yes, and the next thing we will have
is a book titled 'An Idiot's Guide to the Ellis Island Database'."
In a serious vain, as an alternative to "An Idiot's Guide...", I am
writing an article for the Summer issue of AVOTAYNU titled
"Strategies for Using the Ellis Island Database" that discusses
ways of locating the records of your ancestors when the straight
and narrow method does not work.

It has been noted on a number of postings to the JewishGen
Discussion Group that the EIDB organization is now accepting e-mail
regarding errors discovered in the database. If you find what you
believe to be a database error and wish to notify the Foundation,
write to . In the subject line of the e-mail
indicate the type of error encountered so they can channel it to
the correct department. Choose from the following subjects:
* Manifest error
* Spelling error
* Ship Image error
* Other Database error

______________________________



Nu? What's New?
News About Jewish Genealogy
from Avotaynu
Vol. 2, No. 10a - May 13, 2001
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
************************************************************

More Ellis Island Information
=============================
Normally I wait the two weeks between editions of "Nu? What's New?"
for information sent to me by subscribers. Stephen P. Morse of San
Francisco has developed a valuable searching aid for the Ellis Island
database that hopefully will become a permanent feature of some future
update of their system.

The EIDB system allows you to qualify the scope of your search in
a variety of ways. You can qualify the search by Gender, Year of
Arrival (range of years), Ethnicity, Age of Arrival (range of
ages), Port of Departure (all ports for which there were hits on
the initial search), and Name of Ship (all ships for which there
were hits on the initial search). But you cannot make all these
qualifications at the same time.

Morse has developed a front-end for the search process that allows you
to specify ALL your search parameters on a single page. It can be found
at
http://sites.netscape.net/stephenpmorse/ellis.html. It then submits
your
request to the EIDB.


Errata
======
The e-mail address where you submit corrections to the data in the
Ellis
Island database is not .

______________________________

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• Ellis Island Search Info by "Julia A. Heaton Krutilla" <>