Ellis Island Oral Histories Now Available Online

Recorded oral histories of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island will be available online beginning on September 2, the New York Times reports.  The oral histories have previously been only available at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.  The National Park Service began recording the histories in the 1970s.

To access the histories for free, visit www.ancestry.com/immigration.  The website also features "170 million records including lists of passengers who immigrated by ship to America between 1820 and 1960; more than 7 million citizenship and naturalization records; border crossings and passport applications," the Times reports.

Among the histories, the Times reports, is a description of a first view of the Statue of Liberty, given by Lawrence Meinwald.  Meinwald said, "It was very early in the morning and we heard this rumbling. My father and I dressed and went to the deck. There were people of all denominations, some on their knees making the sign of the cross, Jews in their prayer shawls as we were passing the Statue of Liberty."

Image Credit: www.ellisisland.org