Ann's Choice	UPDATED: Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Print This Page Email This Story Add to Favorites

Researching history at Ellis Island

Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008

By Mark Marotta
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

October 2, a group of neighbors from Ann’s Choice head to the former new arrivals station at Ellis Island to see the sights and research their family history—just the latest example of trips available to people who live at the Bucks County community.

“This is at least our third or fourth time” for the trip, says Transportation Manager Gene Karahuta, “and we’re still sold out!” He adds that was also the case on previous trips to Ellis Island, which are open to residents and their family and friends.

Reasons to go
Karahuta notes that many Americans can trace their family roots through places like Ellis Island. The National Park Service’s website for the Ellis Island National Monument says more than 40% of Americans can trace their ancestry through the immigration station there.

He says the trip includes a half-hour movie and tours of exhibits showing what immigrants experienced. The website for the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, which is located in the main building of the former immigration station, says there is also a Wall of Honor inscribed with more than 700,000 names. An interactive research area allows visitors to look up records of ships that brought more than 22 million immigrants, passengers, and crew members to the port of New York and Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.

Karahuta says paying a visit is like tracking their families’ treks to this country. “Everyone should go to Ellis Island,” he says.

Searching history
One Ann’s Choice passenger, Jean Blaha, says she had never gone to Ellis Island even though she is originally from Long Island. She explains her reason for taking the trip is “just because I’ve never been there.” Blaha adds that her grandparents came to the United States before Ellis Island was opened in 1892.

Lucille Steinmetz, also making the trip, says she has never been to Ellis Island before either.

Ann's Choice

More Ann's Choice

Tools

Print This Page

Email This Story

Add to Favorites

“I’d like to see what it’s all about,” she says. “My mother came into Ellis Island in 1908 from Italy.” She adds that her mother was three years old at the time.

While at Ellis Island, Steinmetz plans to look up her grandmother’s name. “I’d like to look at the archives,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to going.”

Other exciting destinations
Upcoming destinations for other trips from Ann’s Choice planned for October include the Walnut Street Theatre, in Philadelphia, for a performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair, and the Philadelphia Spectrum for a show by the Celtic Thunder vocalist group.

The month will close with an October 30 bus ride to Penn’s Peak, in Jim Thorpe, Pa., when the Glen Miller Orchestra will be appearing. Blaha says such planned trips are probably especially beneficial to the many people who otherwise would not have transportation. Being able to travel certainly enhances the experience of living at Ann’s Choice, she adds.

“We’ve gone on other trips from Ann’s Choice,” Blaha says. For instance, she has gone to Ocean City, N.J. overnight, seen the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, and even traveled to Alaska.

Steinmetz adds that she has also taken a few trips from Ann’s Choice, with destinations including Woodloch Pines, a resort in the Poconos; and Phillies baseball games. She says she has signed up to go on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera and to head back to Woodloch Pines. “It’s so easy to travel here. They have so many trips,” she says.

Blaha adds, “You just get on the bus, and they take you there.”