Ancestry.com Visits the San Francisco Bay Area

After two previous visits to San Francisco, the Ancestry Day event appears to have outgrown the available facilities at the Hyatt Embarcadero, because this year we'll be in South San Francisco.

Space is still available for the 2016 Ancestry Day by the Bay, taking place on Saturday, June 18, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the South San Francisco Conference Center.  Come for a fun, information-packed day to learn how to research your family.  Ancestry will bring some of its top researchers, who will show how to locate your ancestors and trace your family history using their voluminous resources.  Sign up and learn more today.

This year Ancestry's conference partner is the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF).  All proceeds from this event go to AIISF's Immigrant Voices Initiative, which tells the stories of immigrants to the Pacific Coast.

There will be a full day of presentations from Ancestry staff.  In addition, representatives from the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, African American Genealogical Society of San Francisco, California Genealogical Society, San Francisco Public Library, San Mateo County Genealogical Society, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Daughters of the American Revolution will be on hand to tell you how their groups can help you continue your research beyond the basics.

The day's classes will include:
Beginner's basics session
How to get the most out of Ancestry.com's Web site
Using AncestryDNA to further your family research
Sharing your family story

Door prizes, including a gift certificate for genealogy research assistance (donated by me!), will be awarded throughout the day.

The optional luncheon includes a presentation by speaker Paula Williams Madison, former NBC Universal executive and author/producer of the book and film Finding Samuel Lowe, about the search for her Hakka Chinese grandfather's story.  Paula Williams Madison has African, Chinese, and Jamaican ancestry.

Angel Island Day

There is also an Angel Island Day on the island on Friday, June 16, featuring speakers Zack Wilske, from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and former National Archives staff member Marisa Louie, talking about the resources these organizations offer.  A few tickets are left for the whole package (ferry, shuttle, lunch, Immigration Station admission).   If sold out, you can make your own transportation arrangements and still enjoy the program.

Find out more about both of these exciting days here.

Angel Island Family History/Reunion Day, Satuday, July 11, 2015

On Saturday, July 11, the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation and Angel Island State Park will hold a Family History/Reunion Day at the site of the former U.S. Immigration Station on Angel Island.  The program will feature Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, and Russian researchers, either in person or via videotape, and an open house where people can learn about the former Immigration Station, which is a National Historic Landmark.  The open house will begin at 11:00 a.m., and the formal program will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  Expert genealogists from the community and Ancestry.com will be available to able to help people search for their roots until 3:00 p.m.

The Immigration Station was in use from 1910–1940 and processed one million immigrants from eighty countries, including Chinese immigrants who left poetry during their often long periods of detention as they sought to avoid the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, Japanese picture brides, Jews escaping the Holocaust in 1930 and 1940, Koreans escaping Japanese control of their country, Indians affected by additional anti-Asian laws in 1917 and 1924, Russians escaping the impact of the revolution, Filipinos suddenly affected by immigration restrictions after their country was on the road to independence, and many more.

Speakers will talk about their families’ experiences, and those attending in person will be available to help answer questions.  One story will be that of Rosa Ginsberg, who was profiled on AIISF’s Immigrant Voices Web site.  The article was about Ginsberg’s immigration file at the National Archives in San Bruno and how she fled Nazi-controlled Austria and hoped to reunite with her boyfriend, Herbert Klein, in New York.  AIISF noted that it did not know what happened to Rosa and Herbert and asked readers to contact them if they had additional information.  Rosa and Herbert did marry, and their son Jeffrey discovered the story online and contacted AIISF to give an update and much more, which he will present at the event on July 11.

In addition, experts from the community and Ancestry.com will be present to show families how to use online resources and to give advice on where to find materials detailing ancestors’ immigration experiences.  Organizers recommend taking the 9:45 a.m. ferry from San Francisco’s Pier 41 or the 10:00 a.m. ferry from Tiburon to get to the island; after that they can take the 25-minute climbing walk or catch a shuttle for a fee.  Ferries from Oakland and Vallejo make connections to the Angel Island ferry.  The open house and program will cost only $5.00, $3.00 for ages 6–17, and free for ages 5 and under.

For more information, including ferry and shuttle prices and details, a list of speakers, and advance tickets, please visit AIISF or call (415) 348-9200 x11.

Immigration Stories at Angel Island

Ayala Cove

After 24 years of living in the San Francisco Bay area, I finally visited Angel Island last week.  I have been wanting to go for several years but somehow never managed to schedule it.  Luckily for me, the California Genealogical Society (CGS) coordinated a family history event this year for Family History Month — plus asked me to help find someone to speak about Jewish immigration through the island — so circumstances worked in my favor.  It was also a "chamber of commerce day" — gorgeous weather, clear blue sky, the kind of day convention and visitors bureaus send out their photographers to take promotional shots.  The ferry ride from Oakland to the island (with a change of boats at the Ferry Building in San Francisco) was very enjoyable, and there was even a great view of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge on the return trip.

Barracks (front) and Hospital (rear)

The station has several points of interest.  CGS posted a helpful map of the station online.  There are informative signs throughout the area, describing not only the buildings (and former buildings) but also activities of people who were held on the island.  Just inside the gated entrance are what remains of employee cottages that were designed by the famed architect Julia Morgan.  It's a shame they didn't survive.

China Cove and the Immigration Station

Down by the water at China Cove was the dock where immigrants arrived (it was torn down years ago).  An administrative building used to be there also, but all that's left now is part of the foundation, showing the footprint of where the building was.  A fire in 1940 destroyed the building and caused the closure of the station.  A small plaza and an Immigrant Heritage Wall have been built at the cove as part of the renovation of the park.  Nearby is the hospital, which is not open to the general public yet but is under renovation and scheduled to open in 2016.  While we were there a group of nurses was given a private tour of the hospital.

Immigration Barracks

The two buildings that are currently open are the main immigration barracks and a World War II mess hall.  Several interesting displays, mostly about Chinese immigration, were set up in the immigration barracks for the family history event.  One of the docents had brought a lot of his own materials to share with attendees, and one of the speakers brought her research documents.  There were also tables with informational material from CGS and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

Mess Hall

The mess hall is where the presentations took place.  Grant Din (staff at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation) and Kay Speaks (genealogist) spoke about their Chinese ancestors who were processed at Angel Island.  Roslyn Tonai (executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society) talked about her mother's family, Japanese immigrants who came through here.  And Maria Sakovich (independent researcher) described the paths across Europe and Asia that Jewish immigrants took during World War I and II that led them to Angel Island.  All of the speakers had interesting stories, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn from them.

In a nice bit of serendipity a woman who works at the Tenement Museum in New York City happened to be on the island as part of her vacation in California.  She is very interested in genealogy outside of her job, and she was thrilled to find out that there was a family history event going on.  We had trouble deciding who the biggest genealogy geek was.

I am happy I had the opportunity to visit Angel Island because my stepsons' grandfather, who was from Punjab, India, came through the island when he arrived in the United States in the 1920's.  Through research I have learned he was not detained, even though Indians were classifed similarly to Chinese (as "Asians" under the Chinese Exclusion Act), because he came as a student, not an immigrant.  But just knowing that he went through there made the visit special.

CGS has posted several excellent photographs of the day taken by Judy Bodycote on its blog.

The one flaw in my day was the climb from the ferry dock at Ayala Cove to the immigration station.  I swear I was told it was about a mile, but it's actually closer to a mile and a half, and most of it is uphill.  My poor little old knees were not happy.  The next time I go to Angel Island, I think I'll take the tram to the immigration station instead.

Wordless Wednesday