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.

Tom Lantos Research Center Named; Alien Files Now Available

Tom Lantos

Tuesday a group of about 100 people gathered at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regional branch in San Bruno, California, to celebrate the release to the public of A- (Alien) Files.  In addition, the research area of the building was dedicated to and named for the late U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the U.S. Congress.

The ceremony was held in the outdoor seating area of the San Bruno facility on a beautiful day.  Several people spoke, including Tom Mills, Chief Operating Officer of NARA; Dominick Gentile, chief of the Records Division of USCIS; U.S. Representative Jackie Speier; representatives of Save Our National Archives, the National Japanese American Historical Society, and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society; and Representative Lantos' grandson Keaton Swett.  All speakers touched on the themes of family history and the great treasures and information to be found in the A-Files.

A-Files were created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for immigrants to the United States who arrived in 1944 and later, or who arrived earlier but who had immigration paperwork processed after 1943.  The files were not originally scheduled to be kept permanently.  A grass-roots San Francisco Bay area group, Save Our National Archives (SONA), lobbied to have the files saved permanently and made available to researchers.  Representative Lantos agreed and helped press the issue.  After his death in 2008, Representative Speier continued support for the project.  In 2009 NARA and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS; the government agency which took the place of the INS) signed an agreement to keep the files as permanent records.

A-Files from offices in San Francisco, Honolulu, Reno, and Guam will be maintained at the NARA branch in San Bruno.  (A-Files from other locations are available through the NARA branch in Kansas City, Missouri.)  Currently more than 40,000 files for individuals born in 1911 and earlier are available in San Bruno.  In 2015 files for people born in 1912-1914 will be transferred from USCIS to NARA.  Every five years after that another five years of records will be transferred.  In addition, USCIS created a name index for the records, which is available to the archivists in San Bruno.

I hope many people take advantage of the opportunity now available to them and make use of these records.  Detailed information about the records available in San Bruno is on the NARA Web site.  You can search the online index to the collection to see if the person you are seeking has a file (this index searches the records held at Kansas City only).  You can also search the general ARC index using the terms "alien case file" and the name of the person you are looking for.  If you find a file exists, you can then schedule a visit and hold the original documents in your hands.

Additional comments on today's ceremony, including images of sample documents from A-Files, can be read at the blog of the California State Genealogical Alliance.