Ancestry PI

04/21/2026

Not to mention 8 children nearly all boys. 😬

Ellis Island was called the “Island of Hope”

Ellis Island was the biggest immigration station in the United States. Over 60 years, about 12 million people passed through here.

These were people came from all over the world hoping for better jobs and lives. Many immigrants also left because of political problems at home. They came from countries such as Algeria, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Guadeloupe, Scotland, Romania, and Russia.

In 1892, the US government took control of immigration instead of individual states. The government now needed a place to have immigrants arrive before being allowed into the USA. They chose Ellis Island, just off Manhattan, and built an immigration center there. The first person processed was a teenage girl from Ireland named Annie Moore.

The 1900s, 10s and 20s were the golden age of the Island. In 1907 alone, more than one million immigrants passed through the Island.

Doctors checked each person for contagious diseases, and officials asked questions to decide if they could enter the country.

Most people spent three to seven hours going through inspections before they could enter America. About 2 percent were denied entry due to disease or legal issues.

After World War I ended in 1918, the US began limiting immigration. People now also had to pass medical and legal exams in US embassies before arriving. These two factors made Ellis Island less important.

Therefore the US government instead began using the island to hold politcal detainees before they were sent out of the US. Ellis Island finally closed in 1954.

Sources:

“Immigration and Deportation at Ellis Island.” American Experience. Public Broadcasting Service.

“Ellis Island.” National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior.

“Ellis Island: Overview and History.” Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Foundation.

04/21/2026

04/21/2026

Often learn something useful from this program.

04/21/2026

Sad 😢

04/20/2026

True.

04/14/2026

Anyone have ancestors who survived this disaster?

🚢 On This Day - 14th April 1912

At 11:40 p.m., the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

Just weeks earlier, she had left the Belfast shipyards of Harland & Wolff, where thousands of men built what was then the largest moving object in the world. For the city, it was a point of pride and a measure of its industrial strength.

The collision itself seemed slight. Many on board barely felt it. But below the waterline, the damage spread across multiple compartments, beyond what the ship could withstand.

In the hours that followed, lifeboats were launched, often not full, as the scale of the situation became clear.

By 2:20 a.m., the ship was gone.

More than 1,500 people lost their lives, including Belfast-born designer Thomas Andrews, who had helped oversee her construction.

It remains one of the most studied maritime disasters in history, still examined for what it revealed about ship design, safety, and decision-making at sea.



📸 Irish Roots

04/13/2026

Useful tip.

It was not only widows who got Union Civil War pensions from the US Civil War. In specific cases, children of veterans or even their parents could get them. Parents could qualify in specific situations where it was deemed that the parent was dependent upon the deceased veteran for their support. There can be significant information in the application---even if the claim was denied. These pensions (approved and other wise) are at the US National Archives.

This is part of one for my aunt who filed a claim based on her deceased son's Civil War service.

--Michael

04/13/2026

🥖. No unnecessary additives in these baguettes.

A delivery man with bags filled with baguettes on a snowy street in Quebec, Canada. (1977)

04/13/2026

Missouri ancestors?

A family outside their tent in Missouri. 1940